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4 



ROSSETTI PAPERS 



a 



RossETTi Papers 

1862 to 1870 



A COMPILATION BY 

WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI 



C'est par la qu'ont passe des hommes disparus 

Victor Hugo 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1903 



.R55 



Gift from 
the Estate Of Miss Ruih Putnam 
Oct.6,ie31 



THE DEDICATION OF THIS BOOK 

WAS ACCEPTED BY 

TWO OF MY BEST FRIENDS, 

DESERVEDLY AND HIGHLY PRIZED 

BY DANTE AND CHRISTINA ROSSETTI 

MARIE STILLMAN AND WILLIAM JAMES STILLMAN 

I NOW DEDICATE IT TO 

MARIE STILLMAN 

AND TO THE CHERISHED MEMORY OF HER 
HUSBAND 



W. M. ROSSETTI 



PREFACE 

A VERY few words may suffice for ushering-in this volume. 

In 1899 I published two separate books — named respec- 
tively, Ruskiii, Rossetti, PrcBraphaelitisin, and Prceraphaelite 
Diaries and Letters. They both consist of letters, journals, 
and similar papers, of old date. The main though not the 
exclusive object of these books is to show forth the career 
of my brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti. They carried the 
record up to February 1862, when his Wife died : and in the 
present volume I prolong the record up to April 1870, 
when his first book of original poetry, entitled Poems, was 
published. 

As in the two volumes mentioned above, so also here, I 
adopt a strictly chronological arrangement of my materials, 
whatever may be the diversity of subject-matter. Diaries 
however are allowed to run on uninterruptedly year by 

year. 

Where I make an omission from any document, I mark 
the fact by dots. In the volume named Ruskin, Rossetti, 
PrcBraphaelitism, I explained that the passages omitted are 
very generally such as would be of little or no interest to the 
reader ; although occasionally it happens that something 
which might be of interest is excluded on other grounds. 
In prefacing the Prcsrapliaelite Diaries and Letters, I might 
have repeated the same observation : I thought it superfluous 
to do so, and some critics raised a query as to what could 
have been the motive for the omissions. Therefore, with 
respect to the present volume, I recur to my original state- 
ment, which once again holds good. I would not deny that, 



viil PREFACE 

in a certain sense, letters read better if given without the 
omission of even unimportant matter; but, apart from my 
reluctance to include what is really trivial, I must, in such a 
compilation as the present, economize my space. 

In various instances I have had to consult the writers of 
letters, or the representatives of the writers. Ready per- 
mission for publishing has been accorded, and for this I 
tender my thanks. 

Wm. M. Rossetti. 
London, /w/^ 1900. 



It may serve the reader's convenience if I here give a 
slight account of some leading contents of this volume. 

Year 1862.— The death of Mrs Dante Rossetti. The 
removal of Dante Rossetti from Chatham Place to Lincoln's 
Inn Fields, and to No. 16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. William 
Blake, and Alexander Gilchrist's Life of him. My trip to 
Italy with William Bell Scott. Froude in his editorial 
connexion with Erasers Magazine. These matters are 
treated of in letters from Scott, Rossetti, Mrs Gilchrist, 
Frederick Tatham, John Linnell Junr., and Froude, and in 
my Diary, etc. See especially Nos. i, 2, 7, 15, 16, 10, 14. 

Year 1 863.— Blake and Gilchrist (as above). My Brother's 
trip with me in Belgium. These matters are treated of in 
a letter from William Haines and in my Diary, etc. See 
especially Nos. 23, y:). 

^ Year 1864.— Dante Rossetti's hobby for collecting blue 
china. His relations with Mr Dunlop as a proposing 
purchaser of his pictures. His picture entitled Found. 
Christina Rossetti's suggested new volume of poems, and 
her poem The Prince's Progress. W. J. Stillman's position 
as United States Consul in Rome. My trip to Venice, 
Bergamo, etc. The Exhibition of Madox Brown's pictures 
and designs. These matters are treated of in letters from 
Dante Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, and Stillman, and in 



PREFACE ix 

my Diary, etc. See especially Nos. 40, 46, 55, 41, 57. 43. 

44, 58. r r . 

Year 1865. — My translation of Dante's Inferno, and 

article on Englisli Opinion on the American War. My ex- 
periences at some "spiritual" seances. Christina Rossetti's 
chest-malady. Her trip in Switzerland and North Italy 
with our Mother and myself. The Madox Brown Exhibi- 
tion. The strained relations between Ruskin and Dante 
Rossetti. The collapse of commissions given to Dante 
Rossetti by Mr Dunlop and Mr Heugh. These matters 
are treated of in letters from Teodorico Pietrocola-Rossetti, 
Professor Norton, Carlyle, Ruskin, and Dante Rossetti, 
and in my Diary and Memoranda, etc. See especially 
Nos. 61, 107, 105, 70, 86, 80, 88, 95, 96, 99- 

Year 1866.— Barone Kirkup's spiritual experiences, and 
particularly with the "spirit of Dante." His adhesion to 
the theories of Gabriele Rossetti concerning Dante etc. 
My account of a trip to Naples; Swinburne's pamphlet 
on his Poems and Ballads; Ruskin's return to Dante 
Rossetti's house. My booklet, Swinburne's Poems and 
Ballads, a Criticism. Some scraps from a notebook of 
Dante Rossetti. These matters are treated of in letters 
from Kirkup and Professor Norton, and in my Diary, etc. 
See especially Nos. 112, 115, 132, 119, 125, 120. 

Year 1867. — My account of a visit to Swinburne's 
paternal home; the removal of myself and others to No. 
56 Euston Square (5 Endsleigh Gardens); the collision of 
James Whistler with the Burlington Fine Arts Club; my 
selection from Walt Whitman's Poems; the condition of 
Dante Rossetti's eyesight. A list of subjects suitable for 
pictures. The Cretan Insurrection. The beginnings of 
Oliver Madox Brown as a painter. Dante Rossetti's 
picture Found, and his design Aspect a Medusa. Whitman's 
Leaves of Grass. The Firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, 
& Co. These matters are treated of in my Diary, and in 
letters from Stauros Dilberoglue, Dante Rossetti, James 
Leathart, Whitman, and Warington Taylor, etc. See 
especially Nos. 137, 146, 140, 144, 148, 153, 166, 161, 162, 



X PREFACE 

Year 1868.— My account of Browning's poem The Ring 
and the Book; my notes on Shelley in Notes and Queries, 
and my edition of Shelley's Poems, with notes and memoir ; 
Dante Rossetti's picture of Dante's Dream ; the pamphlet, 
by Swinburne and myself, on pictures in the Royal 
Academy etc. ; my brochure on Italian Courtesy-Books ; 
my trip to Venice, with robbery of cash ensuing ; my 
collation of Boccaccio's Filostrato with Chaucer's Troylus ; 
the condition of my Brother's eyesight during his stay at 
Penkill Castle. Dante Rossetti's first connexion with 
William Graham as a picture-buyer. Whitman's Leaves of 
Grass etc. Oliver Brown's first exhibited painting, Tlie 
Infant Jason and the Centaur. These matters are treated 
of in my Diary, in letters from William Allingham, 
Graham, Oliver Brown, and Addington Symonds, and in 
an article written by W. D. O'Connor. See especially Nos. 
175, 206, 184, 190, 196, 194. 

Year 1869.— My account of my edition of Shelley's 
Poems, and of a compilation of Shelley's autobiographical 
writings ; of the series Moxoti's Popular Poets, edited by 
me; of the illness of John Lucas Tupper as my travelling- 
companion in Italy; of my acquaintance with Edward 
John Trelawny; of the rupture between Frederick Sandys 
and Dante Rossetti ; of Mrs Gilchrist as an admirer of 
Whitman's poems ; of the privately printed collection of 
Dante Rossetti's Poems, and of the recovery of other 
poems by him from the coffin of his Wife ; of the Byron- 
Stowe scandal ; of the arrival of W. J. Stillman in 
London from Crete; of Dr Hake's acquaintance with my 
Brother. Dante Rossetti's pictures, Dante's Dream, and 
Found. His Nonsense Verses. These matters are treated 
of in my Diary and letters, and in letters from Dr 
Garnett, Dante Rossetti, Dr Hake, and William Graham, 
etc. See especially Nos. 210, 212, 242, 232, 252, 267, 273. 

Year 1870. — My account concerning Trelawny; Dante 
Rossetti with Stillman at Scalands, Sussex, and the issue 
of his volume named Poems; Swinburne's Songs before 
Sunrise. My edition of Shelley's Poems. Whitman, and 



PREFACE 



the article of Professor Dowden regarding him. Critiques 
on Dante Rossetti's Poems, and the anticipated hostility 
of Robert Buchanan to them. Stillman's approaching 
re-marriage. These matters are treated of in my Diary, 
and in letters from AUingham, Dowden, Dante Rossetti, 
etc. See especially Nos. 275, 284, 288, 297, 302. 



CONTENTS 



60 
61 

62 

63 
64 

65 
66 
67 
68 
69 
70 

71 



DATE. 

1863 October 29 
November 6 

18 
23 
25 

1864 January 15 
24 

March 28 
April 10 . 

„ (?) 

May 7 . 

„ (?) June . 

„ 10 . 

„ 14 to 

July 14 . 

„ 19 • 

August 1 1 

„ 12 

» 23 

„ 25 

September i 

5 
November 2 1 

„ (?) • . 

November 24 

December 5 

8 

» 23 



33 
34 
35 
36 
37 
38 
39 
40 

41 
42 

43 
44 

45 
46 

47 

48 

49 

50 

51 

52 

53 

54 

55 

56 

57 

58 

59 1865 January 9 
10 
•7 -3 



February i 

6 

„ 10 

28 



March 



J. A. Froude 
Anne Gilchrist 



Philip Hamerton 

)> 
Dante Rossetti 
Philip Hamerton 
Dante Rossetti 
Christina Rossett 
Dante Rossetti 
W. J. Stillman 

Wm. Rossetti 
Dante Rossetti 



PEKSON ADDBESSKD, 
OR HEADING. 

Wm. Rossetti 



J. A. Froude 
Dante Rossetti 



Christina Rossett 
Dante Rossetti 
Frederic Shields 
Christina Rossetti 
Teodorico Pietro 

cola-Rossetti 
Christina Rossetti 



Dante Rossetti 
Thomas Keightley 
Christina Rossett 

Teodorico Pietro 

cola-Rossetti 
Charles Cayley 



Madox Brown 
Wm. Rossetti 
Madox Brown 
Dante Rossetti 
The Seed of David 
Wm. Rossetti 

Diary 
Madox Brown 



W^m. Rossetti . 
Madox Brown 
Allan P. Paton 
Madox Brown 

5) 

Dante Rossetti 
Madox Brown 
Dante Rossetti 



Wm. Rossetti 
Dante Rossetti 



Madox Brown 
Wm. Rossetti 
Dante Rossetti 



Wm. Rossetti 











CONTENTS 




XV 


Ko. 




DATE. 


WRITER. 


PERSON ADDRESiSKD, 
OR HEADING. 


PAGE. 


72 


1865 


March . 


Christina Rossetti 


Dante Rossetti 


87 


1}> 


» 


„ 19 


Wm. Allingham . 


Wm. Rossetti 


89 


74 


)) 


11 21 


Dante Rossetti . 


Madox Brown 


90 


75 


)5 


1, 21 


Professor Norton 


Dante Rossetti 


91 


76 


)) 


11 30 


Madox Brown 


Wm. Rossetti 


92 


77 


» 


„ 31 


Christina Rossetti 


Dante Rossetti 


93 


78 


11 


April 8 . 


Alexa Wilding . 


11 


95 


79 


11 






Christina Rossetti 


11 


96 


80 


11 


April 15 




Thomas Carlyle . 


Madox Brown 


97 


81 


1,{ 


?) „ 




Christina Rossetti 


Dante Rossetti 


97 


82 


11 


„ 18 




Dante Rossetti . 


Madox Brown 


100 


83 


„i 


?) ,1 




5) 


11 


lOI 


84 


11 


May 9 




Professor Norton 


Wm. Rossetti 


102 


85 


)) 


11 13 




Julia Cameron 


5) 


103 


86 


11 


„ 22 to 














June 26 




Wm. Rossetti 


Diary 


104 


87 


11 


„ 10 




Dante Rossetti . 


Madox Brown 


131 


88 


11 






John Ruskin 


Dante Rossetti 


132 


89 


11 






11 


11 


133 


90 


11 






11 


» 


135 


91 


11 






» 


JJ 


136 


92 


)) 






11 


)) 


137 


93 


11 


June 26 . 




Dante Rossetti . 


Madox Brown 


138 


94 


11 


11 28 




11 


JJ 


139 


95 


11 


July 




John Ruskin 


Dante Rossetti 


141 


96 


11 


August 7 


Dante Rossetti . 


Walter Dunlop 


144 


97 


11 


11 8 


11 


Madox Brown 


146 


98 


11 


"^ T 
11 -1 


11 


Walter Dunlop 


146 


99 


11 


September i 


11 


John Heugh . 


. 147 


100 


11 


14 


11 


JJ 


. 147 


lOI 


11 


18 


11 


JJ 


149 


102 


,l( 


?) ,, 


11 


Walter Dunlop 


150 


103 


11 


11 -' 


11 


Aldam Heaton 


150 


104 


11 


November 9 


11 


Walter Dunlop 


153 


105 


11 


II 


Wm. Rossetti 


A Spiritual (?) 
Seance (i) . 


153 


106 


11 


25 


)) 


JJ (2) . 


157 


107 


11 


December i 


Professor Norton 


Wm. Rossetti . 


161 


108 


11 


„ 8 and 9 


James Smetham . 


Dante Rossetti 


162 


109 


11 


18 . 


Ernest Gambart . 


JJ 


164 


no 


1866 


January 4 


Wm. Rossetti 


A Spiritual 
Seance (3) . 


165 


III 


JJ 


9 


Professor Norton 


Wm. Rossetti 


168 


112 


)> 


I 


9 


Barone Kirkup . 


JJ • 


170 



xvi 






CONTENTS 


PERSON ADDRESSED, 


NO. 




DATE. 


WEITEE. 


OB HEADING. 


113 


1866 February 9 . 


Dante Rossetti . 


Madox Brown 


114 


)j 


20 . 


Charlotte Polidori 


Memorandum 


115 


5> 


27 . 


Barone Kirkup . 


Wm. Rossetti 


116 


J5 


29 . 


Robert Browning 


JJ 


117 


)» 


April 24 . 


Horace Scudder . 


JJ 


118 


» 


JJ 24 . 


Barone Kirkup . 


JJ 


119 


» 


May 24 to 










December 30 . 


Wm. Rossetti 


Diary 


120 


5) 


(?) . . 


Dante Rossetti . 


Scraps . 


121 


» 


June 4 . 


Christina Rossetti 


Wm. Rossetti 


122 


)) 


„ 16 . 


Dante Rossetti . 


Madox Brown 


123 


)) 


July 2 . 


Barone Kirkup . 


Wm. Rossetti 


124 


» 


August 14 


John Murray 


JJ 


125 


)) 


September 12 . 


Professor Norton 


JJ 


126 


?> 


16 . 


Wm. Bell Scott . 


JJ 


127 


5) 


20 . 


Barone Kirkup . 


JJ 


128 


)) 


26 . 


Dante Rossetti 


Madox Brown 


129 


)) 


October 18 


William Rossetti 


A Spiritual 
Seance (4) . 


130 


)) 


November i . 


John Murray 


Wm. Rossetti 


131 


5) 


12 . 


J, A. Froude 


JJ 


132 


5> 


13 . 


Barone Kirkup . 


JJ 


133 


» 


December 2 . 


John Ruskin 


JJ 


134 


JJ 


JJ -- • 


Teodorico Pietro- 
cola-Rossetti . 


JJ • • 


135 


)5 


30 . 


Barone Kirkup . 


JJ • 


136 


)> 


31 • 


Warington Taylor 


JJ 


137 


1867 January i to 










December 29 . 


Wm. Rossetti 


Diary 


138 


» 


January 16 


Dora Greenwell . 


Wm. Rossetti 


139 


» 


19 


Barone Kirkup . 


JJ 


140 


JJ 


,j 28 . 


Stauros Dilberoglue „ 


141 


JJ 


March i 


Sir Frederick 
Burton 


Madox Brown 


142 


JJ 


,j 6 


Barone Kirkup . 


Wm. Rossetti 


143 


JJ 


JJ 23 


JJ 


JJ 


144 


JJ 


May 10 . 


Dante Rossetti . 


Oliver Brown 


145 


JJ 


(?) JJ . ■ 


JJ 


JJ 


146 


JJ 


(?) . . 


Wm. Rossetti 


List of Subjects for 
Pictures 


147 


JJ 


May 27 . 


John Ruskin 


Wm. Rossetti 


148 


JJ 


JJ 30 • 


James Leathart . 


Dante Rossetti 


149 


JJ 


(?) June 5 . 


Dante Rossetti . 


James Leathart 


150 


JJ 


JJ 24 . 


JJ 


Madox Brown 









CONTENTS 




xvii 


NO. 




DATE. 


WRITER. 


PERSON ADDRESSED, 
OR HEADING. 


PAGE. 


iSi 


1867 June 30 . 


Wm. AUingham . 


Wm. Rossetti 


. 267 


152 


)5 


July . . 


Dante Rossetti . 


Madox Brown 


267 


153 


5) 


» 25 . 


» 


)> 


. 268 


154 


)) 


August 5 


)) 


)) 


. 269 


155 


)) 


10 


John Burroughs . 


Moncure Conway 


. 270 


156 


>) 


15 


Dante Rossetti . 


Madox Brown 


. 270 


157 


)) 


September 27 . 


Barone Kirkup . 


Wm. Rossetti 


. 271 


158 


J) 


October 24 


Dante Rossetti . 


Madox Brown 


. 272 


159 


)) 


„ 25 . 


F. T. Palgrave . 


Wm. Rossetti 


273 


160 


)) 


„ 29 . 


Stauros Dilbero- 
glue 


)) 


274 


161 


?) 


November i . 


Walt Whitman . 


Moncure Conway 


274 


162 


)) 


(?) Autumn 


Warington Taylor 


Dante Rossetti 


276 


163 


)) 


(?) „ . . 


)> 


5) 


277 


164 


)> 


(?) ,, . . 


I) 


JJ 


278 


165 


)> 


(?) „ . . 


?) 


J> 


280 


166 


5J 


(?) Nov. 12 


Dante Rossetti . 


C. p. Matthews 


280 


167 


)) 


„ 22 


Walt Whitman . 


Wm. Rossetti 


283 


168 


)) 


December 3 , 


A. B. Houghton . 


>> 


284 


169 


)) 


3 • 


Walt Whitman . 


)> 


285 


170 


>) 


15 • 


Barone Kirkup . 


>> 


288 


171 


1868 January 3 


Dante Rossetti . 


C. P. Matthews 


290 


172 


)) 


7 . 


)) 


>> 


292 


173 


)) 


9 • 


)) 


») 


294 


174 


?) 


)5 


» 


)) 


295 


175 


)) 


10 










to December 31 . 


Wm. Rossetti 


Diary 


295 


176 


)) 


January 16 


Thomas Dixon . 


Wm. Rossetti 


340 


177 


)) 


» 17 . 


Dr Furnivall 


5) 


341 


178 


)) 


„ 20 . 


W. D. O'Connor. 


)> 


342 


179 


)) 


February 14 . 


Barone Kirkup . 


?) 


343 


180 


n 


17 • 


Frederic Shields . 


Dante Rossetti 


345 


181 


)) 


(?) . . . 


Warington Taylor 


)> 


346 


182 


)) 


March 23 


Barone Kirkup . 


Wm. Rossetti 


348 


183 


') 


» 27 


Horace Scudder . 


)> 


349 


184 


5) 


April 9 


Wm. Graham 


Dante Rossetti 


350 


185 


)) 


„ 21 


Camden Hotten . 


Wm. Rossetti 


351 


186 


5) 


„ 26 . 


Barone Kirkup . 


j> 


351 


187 


5) 


,,28. . 


Bertrand Payne . 


)> 


352 


188 


)1 


May 18 . 


Barone Kirkup . 


») 


353 


189 


5) 


„ 20 . 


W. D. O'Connor . 


)» 


355 


190 


)) 


(?) . ■ . 


)) 


On Leaves of Grass 


356 


191 


)) 


May 27 . 


Stauros Dilbero- 












glue 


Wm. Rossetti 


359 



xviii 




CONTENTS 




NO. 


DATE. 


WRITER. 


PERSON ADDRESSED, 
OR HEADING. 


192 1868 July 23 . 


C. p. Maenza 


Dante Rossetti 


193 


„ 26 . 


J) 


» 


194 


, „ 26 . 


Oliver Brown 


Emma Brown 


195 


, August 12 


James Smetham . 


Dante Rossetti 


196 , 


» 15 


Addington 








Symonds 


Wm. Rossetti 


197 


» 19 


)> 


)> 


198 , 


» 25 


>j 


» 


199 


„ 31 


Barone Kirkup . 


>j 


200 , 


, September 18 . 


» 


» 


201 , 


21 . 


Sir Frederick 








Burton 


Dante Rossetti 


202 , 


, October 7 


Dante Rossetti . 


Madox Brown 


203 , 


, November 20 . 


Barone Kirkup . 


Wm. Rossetti 


204 , 


30 • 


Wm. Bell Scott . 


)5 • 


205 , 


, December 2 . 


)) 


)> • 


206 , 


4 . 


Wm. Allingham . 


)> • 


207 


18 . 


)) 


>> 


208 


20 . 


Wm. Rossetti 


Wm. Allingham 


209 , 


22 . 


W. J. Stillman . 


Wm. Rossetti 


210 18 


69 January i 








to December 29 


Wm. Rossetti 


Diary 


211 , 


, January 22 


W. J. Stillman . 


Wm. Rossetti 


212 , 


, February 5 . 


Dr Garnett 


)) 


213 , 


9 • 


Madox Brown 


)> 


214 


15 ■ 


Dr Garnett 


55 


215 


18 . 


Madox Brown 


)) 


216 


23 . 


F. T. Palgrave . 


)) 


217 


25 . 


» 


5) 


218 


, March i 


Dr Garnett 


)> • 


219 , 


2 


Barone Kirkup . 


J) 


220 , 


„ 8 


James Smetham . 


Dante Rossetti 


221 , 


„ 12 


Wm. Rossetti 


Wm. Allingham 


222 , 


„ 20 


Robert Browning 


Dante Rossetti 


223 


» 21 


Philip Hamerton. 


Wm. Rossetti 


224 , 


„ 22 


Dr Garnett 


)) 


225 , 


, April 19 


Dante Rossetti . 


Prof. Norton 


226 


„ 19 • 


Wm. Rossetti 


Frances Rossetti , 


227 


„ 21 . 


)> 


)) 


228 , 


) )> -J ■ 


Dante Rossetti . 


Prof. Norton 


229 , 


, May 4 . 


Smith, Elder, 








& Co. 


Dante Rossetti 


230 


, ,, 10 . 


J. W. Inchbold . 


Wm. Rossetti 


231 


, „ 12 . 


Dante Rossetti . 


Prof. Norton 









CONTENTS 


PERSON ADDRESSED, 


xix 


NO. 




DATE. 


WRITER. 


OB HEADING. 


PAOK. 


232 


1869 May 20 . 


Madox Brown 


Wm. Rossetti 


440 


233 


» 


(?) June I 


Dante Rossetti . 


Frederick Sandys 


441 


234 


» 


11 5 


11 


j> 


444 


235 


)i 


„ 18 


John Tupper 


Wm. Rossetti 


445 


236 


)) 


„ 24 


Barone Kirkup . 


11 


446 


237 


J) 


July 13 . 


Dr Garnett 


M 


446 


238 


11 


„ 14 . 


Barone Kirkup . 


)J 


448 


239 


II 


„ 19 . 


Lucy Brown 












(Rossetti) 


Madox Brown 


449 


240 


)) 


„ 20 . 


Mathilde Blind . 


Wm. Rossetti 


450 


241 


)> 


August 19 


Dante Rossetti . 


Madox Brown 


452 


242 


)) 


» 23 


Wm. Rossetti 


Dante Rossetti 


453 


243 


)) 


„ 24 


» 


11 


455 


244 


)) 


„ 26 


Dante Rossetti . 


Madox Brown 


457 


245 


>> 


„ 28 . 


W. D. O'Connor . 


Wm. Rossetti 


459 


246 


)) 


„ 28 . 


Wm. Rossetti 


Dante Rossetti 


461 


247 


)) 


(?) » 31 


Dante Rossetti . 


Madox Brown 


. 462 


248 


)) 


September 8 . 


Madox Brown 


Lucy Brown 
(Rossetti) . 


463 


249 


)i 


12 . 


Wm. Rossetti 


Dante Rossetti 


465 


250 


)j 


16 . 


11 


J) 


467 


251 


)) 


October i 


Wm. Bell Scott . 


Wm. Rossetti 


• 469 


252 


)) 


8 . 


Dr Hake 


Dante Rossetti 


. 470 


253 


)) 


II 


Wm. Bell Scott . 


Wm. Rossetti 


• 471 


254 


f> 


14 • 


Dante Rossetti . 


Madox Brown 


472 


255 


)) 


14 ■ 


Wm. Rossetti 


Dante Rossetti 


473 


256 


)) 


15 . 


Dr Garnett 


Wm. Rossetti 


474 


257 


)) 


15 • 


John Tupper 


)) 


475 


258 


)? 


(?) 


Dante Rossetti . 


Madox Brown 


475 


259 


)) 


October 17 


Anne Gilchrist . 


Wm. Rossetti 


476 


260 


)) 


11 -^ 


James Thursfield 


Dante Rossetti 


477 


261 


)> 


29 . 


Frederic Shields . 


J) 


478 


262 


)j 


30 • 


Barone Kirkup . 


Wm. Rossetti 


480 


263 


5> 


11 30 • 


John Tupper 


11 


481 


264 


)> 


November 14 . 


James Thursfield 


Dante Rossetti 


482 


265 


)) 


16 . 


Conte Giuseppe 












Ricciardi 


Wm. Rossetti 


483 


266 


» 


18 . 


Ponsonby Lyons . 


Lilith . 


483 


267 


J) 


(?) 11 


Wm. Graham 


Dante Rossetti 


486 


268 


)) 


29 . 


Dante Rossetti . 


Wm. Graham . 


488 


269 


)) 


December i . 


Wm. Graham 


Dante Rossetti 


489 


270 


11 





Wm. Davies 


)) 


489 


271 


11 


» 3 • 


Dante Rossetti . 


Wm. Davies . 


490 


27"^ 


11 


17 . 


W. J. Stillman . 


Wm. Rossetti 


492 



XX 






CONTENTS 








NO. 


DATE 




WRITER. 


PERSON ADDRESSED, 
OR HEADING. 


PAGE. 


273 


1869 (?) . 




Dante Rossetti . 


Nonsense Verses 


492 


274 


1870 Januai 


•y I • 


Anne Gilchrist . 


Wm. 


Rossetti 


497 


275 


>1 5> 


I to . 














A.pril 22 


Wm. Rossetti 


Diary 


498 


276 


„ (?) . 




Dante Rossetti . 


Proposed Raffle— 
Deverell . 


506 


277 


„ January 2 


Anne Gilchrist . 


Wm. 


Rossetti 


507 


278 


)) II 


3 


55 




55 


507 


279 


It 5) 


8 . 


Edward Trelawny 




55 


508 


280 


)5 )» 


9 • 


Thomas Dixon . 




55 


508 


281 


)) )) 


IS • 


Barone Kirkup . 




55 


509 


282 


)) )) 


17 . 


Edward Trelawny 




55 


510 


283 


)) 5) 


'!'-> 


Dante Rossetti . 


Prof. 


Norton 


511 


284 


)) 5) 


23 . 


Wm. Allingham . 


Wm. 


Rossetti 


513 


285 


)1 )> 


27 . 


Mrs Lynn Linton 




55 


515 


286 


)) J) 


27 . 


Keningale Cook . 




55 


. 516 


287 


)J » 


30 • 


Wm. Rossetti 


Wm. 


Allingham 


516 


288 


„ February i . 


Prof. Dowden 


Wm. 


Rossetti 


517 


289 


)) 55 




• 


Dante Rossetti . 




55 


518 


290 


55 55 


5 • 


Prof. Dowden 




5' 


519 


291 


)5 5) 


7 • 


F. T. Palgrave . 




55 


519 


292 


55 55 


10 . 


Prof. Dowden 




55 


. 520 


293 


55 55 


II . 


John Tupper 


Dante Rossetti 


521 


294 


55 55 


II . 


Dante Rossetti . 


Wm. 


Rossetti 


521 


295 


55 55 


15 . 


John Pickford 




55 


. 522 


296 


55 55 


17 . 


Mrs Lewes 


Dante Rossetti 


523 


297 


5) 55 


23 . 


Dante Rossetti . 


Wm. 


Rossetti 


524 


298 


„ March 


10 


John Ruskin 




55 


. 525 


299 


55 55 


19 


Morris and Com- 














pany 


A Bill . 


52s 


300 


55 }> 


25. 


Dante Rossetti . 


Wm. 


Rossetti 


526 


301 


55 April 




J5 


Madox Brown 


• 527 


302 


55 55 


II . 


55 


Prof. 


Norton 


. 528 


303 


55 55 


24. 


Barone Kirkup . 


Wm. 


Rossetti 


530 



CONTENTS 



XXI 



LETTERS ETC. FROM :— 



Allingham, Wm. . 
Blind, Mathilde . 
Brown, Lucy (Rossetti) 
Brown, Madox 
Brown, Oliver 
Browning, Robert . 
Burroughs, John . 
Burton, Sir Frederick 
Cameron, Julia 
Carlyle, Thomas . 
Cayley, Charles 
Cook, Keningale . 
Davies, Wm. . 
Dilberoglue, Stauros 
Dixon, Thomas 
Dowden, Professor 
Froude, J. A. . 
Furnivall, Dr . 
Gambart, Ernest . 
Garnett, Dr . 
Gilchrist, Anne 

Graham, Wm. 
Greenwell, Dora . 
Haines, Wm. . 
Hake, Dr 

Hamerton, Philip . 
Hotten, Camden . 
Houghton, A. B. . 
Inchbold, J. W. . 
Keightley, Thomas 
Kirkup, Barone 



Leathart, James 
Lewes, Mrs . 
Linnell, John (Jun.) 



NUMBER. 

73, 151, 206, 207, 284 
240 

239 

28, 76, 213, 215, 232, 248 

194 

116, 222 

155 
141, 201 

5,85 
80 

71 
286 

270 

140, 160, 191 

176, 280 

288, 290, 292 

14, 31, 52, 131 

9, ^77 

109 

212, 214, 218, 224, 237, 256 

7, 17, 20, 24, 27, 32 to 35, 259, 274, 277, 

278 
184, 267, 269 
138 

23 

252 

36, 37, 39, 223 

185 

168 

230 

67 

112, 115, 118, 123, 127, 132, 13s, 139, 
142, 143, 157, 170, 179, 182, 186, 188, 
199, 200, 203, 219, 236, 238, 262, 281, 

303 
148 
296 
16, 19 



CONTENTS 



Linnell, John (Sen.) 
Linton, Mrs Lynn . 
Lyons, Ponsonby . 
Maenza, C. P. 
Morris and Company . 
Murray, John 
Norton, Professor . 
O'Connor, W. D. . 
Palgrave, F. T. . 
Payne, Bertrand . 
Pickford, John . . 
Pietrocola-Rossetti, Teodorico 
Polidori, Charlotte 
Ricciardi, Conte Giuseppe . 
Rossetti, Christina 

Rossetti, Dante 



Rossetti, Wm. 



Ruskin, John . 
Scott, Wm. Bell 
Scudder, Horace 
Shields, Frederic 
Smetham, James 
Smith, Elder, & Co. 
Stillman, W. J. 
Symonds, Addington 
Tatham, Frederick 
Taylor, Warington 
Thursfield, James . 
Trelawny, Edward 
Tupper, John . 
Vernon, Lord 
Whitman, Walt 
Wilding, Alexa 



21 

285 
266 

192, 193 
299 

124, 130 

29,75,84, 107, III, 125 
178, 189, 190, 245 

8, 159, 216, 217, 291 

187 

295 

61, 70, 134 

114 

265 

41, 57, 60, 62 to 65, 68, 69, 72, T], 79, 81, 
121 

2, 6, 12, 13, 22, 38, 40, 42, 45 to 51, 53 
to 56, 58, 66, 74, 82, 83, 87, 93, 94, 
96 to 104, 113, 120, 122, 128, 144, 145, 
149, 150, 152, 153, 154, 156, 158, 166, 
171, 172, 173, 174, 202, 225, 228, 231, 
233, 234, 241, 244, 247, 254, 258, 268, 
271, 273, 276, 283, 289, 294, 297, 300, 
301, 302 

10, 30, 44, 86, 105, 106, no, 119, 129, 137, 

146, 175, 208, 210, 221, 226, 227, 242, 

243, 246, 249, 250, 255, 275, 287 

11, 25, 88 to 92, 95, 133, 147,298 
I, 4, 126, 204, 205, 251, 253 

117, 183 

59, 180, 261 

108, 195, 220 

229 

26, 43, 209, 211, 272 

196, 197, 198 

15,18 

136, 162 to 165, 181 

260, 264 

279, 282 

235, 257, 263, 293 

3 

161, 167, 169 

78 



CONTENTS 



LETTERS TO 



Allingham, Wm. . 
Brown, Emma 
Brown, Lucy (Rossetti) 
Brown, Madox 



Brown, Oliver 
Conway, Moncure 
Davies, Wm. . 
Dunlop, Walter 
Graham, Wm. 
Heaton, Aldam 
Heugh, John . 
Leathart, James 
Matthews, C. P. 
Norton, Professor 
Paton, Allan P. 
Rossetti, Dante 



Rossetti, Frances 
Rossetti, Wm. 



Sandys, Frederick 



208, 221, 287 

194 

28, 248 

2, 6, 12, 13, 22, 38,. 40, 45 to 51, 53, 55, 
56, 58, 66, 74, 80, 82, 83, 87, 93, 94, 97, 
113, 122, 128, 141, 150, 152, 153, 154, 
156, 158, 202, 239, 241, 244, 247, 254, 
258, 301 

144, 145 

155, 161 

271 

96, 98, 102, 104 

268 

103 

99, 100, lOI 

149 

166, 171 to 174 

225, 228, 231, 283, 302 

54 

3, II, 29, 41, 57, 59, 60, 62 to 65, 68, 69, 
72, 75, n^ 78, 79, 81, 88 to 92, 95, 
108, 109, 148, 162 to 165, 180, 181, 184, 
192, 193, 195, 201, 220, 222, 229, 242, 
243, 246, 249, 250, 252, 255, 260, 261, 
264, 267, 269, 270, 293, 296 

226, 227 

r, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 14 to 21, 23 to 27, 31 to 
V, 39, 43, 52, 61, 67, 70, 71, 73, 76, 

84, 85, 107, III, 1X2, 115 to 118, 121, 

123 to 127, 130, 136, 138, 139, 140, 142, 
143, 147, 151, 157, 159, 160, 167 to 170, 
176 to 179, 182, 183, 185 to 189, 191, 

196 to 200, 203 to 207, 209, 211 to 219, 

223, 224, 230, 232, 235 to 238, 240, 245, 

251, 253, 256, 257, 259, 262, 263, 265, 

272, 274, 277 to 282, 284, 285, 286, 288 
to 295, 297, 298, 300, 303 

233, 234 



ROSSETTI PAPERS. 



I. — William Bell Scott to William Rossetti. 

[There was a project pending between Mr Scott and 
myself that we should go together to Italy in the course 
of 1862 — which in fact we did. My Brother did not find it 
convenient to accompany us.] 

Newcastle-on-Tyne. 
19 February 1862. 

My dear W., — You will believe we heard of the death 
of Mrs Gabriel with sincere sorrow and sympathy for him. 
The circumstance you mention, and which we hear from 
other sources, has been the cause of some notoriety, adding 
to the natural pain of such a parting. Since having your 
note, which I have delayed answering till now on that 
account, I have tried to ascertain whether I could go to 
Italy now. To have Gabriel with us would, in several 
regards, be a great gain, and I quite think he ought to be 
lifted out of his present surroundings. My going is how- 
ever uncertain ; but, whether I go or not, you must consider 
yourself free to accompany him. . . . But, irrespective of me, 
why delay till middle of April? Gabriel should go now if 
at all ; indeed, if he does not go now, it is more than 
likely he will not go at all. My knowledge of Gabriel 
leads me to fancy he will either go away immediately or 
not at all. If he gets involved in the interest of his 
picture - engagements, he will not leave them. But then, 
indeed, our object would be gained ; he would be in- 

A 



2 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

terested and mentally occupied, though not quite so healthily, 
I dare say. . . . Give Gabriel my most friendly sympathy, 
and explain to him my position. — Ever yours, 

W. B. Scott. 



2. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[Not long before her death, Rossetti had painted a head 
of his Wife, which he called Reghia Cordiuvi. It seems to 
have belonged to Mr John Miller of Liverpool, who was 
now selling off most of his pictures. My Brother did not 
at this date wish to be under an obligation to Mr Gambart 
the picture-dealer, as the latter was pressing him rather 
inconveniently in relation to some pictures which he had 
undertaken to paint for the late Mr Flint, and which he 
had not yet completed. The reference to "Tudor House" 
indicates that Rossetti was thinking of removing — as he 
soon afterwards did — to that residence.] 

Albany Street, London. 
22 February 1862. 

My dear Brown, — Would you write to Mr Miller about 
the little head of Lizzie, if you have not yet done so. It 
is called Regina Cordium. It seems to require to be done 
at once, as Gambart, meeting William in the street, 
explained his readiness to withdraw the picture at once 
from the sale ; but I had rather Mr Miller were to effect 
it if he likes to do so — as otherwise I should be under 
obligation to G[ambar]t, and he may become troublesome. 
House-affairs get still further complicated — Tudor House, 
Cheyne Walk, seeming to offer probably on such very 
reduced terms that it would seem a sin to let it slip. I 
shall know more to-day. Perhaps I may come down this 
evening to you — indeed most probably. — Yours, 

D. G. R. 



LORD VERNON, 1862 



3. — Lord Vernon to Dante Rossetti. 

[The " present " which Rossetti had sent to Lord Vernon 
must have been his book TJie Early Italian Poets. The 
poem by CiuUo d'Alcamo, translated in that vohime, is 
regarded as tlie earliest of all the compositions there in- 
cluded.] 

Tresco Abbey, Isles of Scilly. 
27 March 1862. 

Dear Sir, — I see with shame that I have omitted to do 
that which I thought I had done long ago — I mean, 
thanked you for your kind and very acceptable present. 
I can only hope that I may have soon the pleasure of 
seeing you and thanking you in person. I am the more 
gratified by this present because I not only respected the 
character and admired the talent of your dear Father, but 
loved him for his simplicity, gentleness, and warmth of 
heart. I hope some day or another you will pay me a 
visit at Sudbury, I have got some MSS. of Fazio degli 
Uberti and Brunetto Latini (not autographs but old), and 
I should like to consult you about them. Are you aware 
that I was so enamoured of Ciullo d'Alcamo that I took 
some pains to get the text rectified, as you will see in the 
last edition of Nannucci's Mannale della Letteraticra ? — I 
am, dear Sir, yours very truly, 

Vernon. 



4. — William Bell Scott to William Rossettl 

[The Brother of Mr Scott here referred to was (but I 
need hardly specify it) the painter David Scott] 

Newcastle. 
4 May 1862. 

My dear W., — . . . Have you seen the Great Exhibition 
)'et? I suppose one must calculate on a number of days 



4 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

for that alone in London. Tell Gabriel I wrote Redgrave 
(much against the grain, he may be sure) about my 
Brother's pictures. Long ago and often I have formed the 
determination to do or say no more in the way of taking 
care of my Brother's fame, but still things turn up to 
induce me to break that resolve. The gods are against 
him. Somehow or other the world ignores him, and 
nothing any one can say seems to effect any result or 
remain audible. The fact is, his art does not belong to 
the day. Following his natural tendencies, he worked on 
an Ancient Master's basis of education ; and the great 
characteristic of his manner — that power of hand he showed 
always, and proudly — is not only lost in English art ; it is 
misunderstood, and disqualifies a man. How could his 
pictures be well hung when Redgrave (the painter of those 
pictures at South Kensington, TJie Widoiv, Ophelia, Gulliver') 
and Creswick were the hangers ? — Ever yours, 

W. B. Scott. 



5. — Julia Cameron to William Rossetti. 

[This extract of a letter from a lady well known in 
society and as a photographic enthusiast relates to 
Christina Rossetti's first published volume, Goblin Market, 
etc. The name of Henry Taylor will be recognized as 
that of the distinguished author of Philip van Artevelde.'] 

Brent Lodge, Hendon. 
13 May 1862. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — If you and your Sister have 
judged of me by seemings, you must both have thought 
me unworthy and ungrateful of the book which is really 
precious to me. It has given me a great lo?iging to know 
your Sister ; but you don't and won't understand how much 
this discourse with her soul makes me feel as if I did 
know her now, and always affectionately as well as admir- 



ANNE GILCHRIST, 1862 5 

ingly. The first thing I did with my gift was to lend it 
to my great friend, Henry Taylor — he cared very much 
for it; the next thing I did was to enjoy the feast myself; 
and the third thing I do is to say my grace to the giver. . . . 
— Yours ever truly, 

Julia Margaret Cameron. 



6. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[By " Heaton " my Brother meant Mr John Aldam 
Ileaton, then an art-loving manufacturer in Yorkshire, 
afterwards a decorative artist in London ; and by " Webb " 
he meant Mr Philip Webb the architect, at that time a 
member of the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, & Co.] 

59 Lincoln's Inn Fields. 
14 May 1862. 

Dear Brown, — Heaton and Webb are coming here to 
tea to-morrow (Thursday) at eight or nine. Will you 
come ? I hope you will. 

I have been to the International, and was absolutely 
knocked down and trodden on by H. Leys. — Yours, 

D. G. R. 



7. — Anne Gilchrist to William Rossettl 

[Readers will readily perceive that this extract refers 
to the Life of Williain Blake by Alexander Gilchrist. 
When Gilchrist's sudden death took'^'place at the end of 
1 86 1, the Life was practically completed, but not in every 
detail. My Brother and myself devoted a great deal of 
attention to the task, congeniaKin all respects, of bringing 
the MS. into a condition suited for publication : but I may 
repeat here (what I have had occasion to say before, and 
what appears in Mrs Gilchrist's letter of 2 May 1863, No. 



6 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

24) that the Life itself, and in great part the critical 
remarks embodied in it, were the authentic and undivided 
work of Gilchrist, and only required to be supplemented 
in some of the outlying matter. I may also say that my 
extracts from numerous interesting letters addressed to me 
by Mrs Gilchrist would be much more copious, were it not 
that those letters have already been drawn upon in the 
book entitled Anne GilcJirist, her Life and IVritijigs, edited 
by Herbert H, Gilchrist, 1887.] 

Brookbank Cottage, SHOTTER^^LL, Haslemere. 
22 May 1862. 

My dear Sir, — I find blanks left in the MS. where should 
follow some brief description of The ALarriage of Heaven 
and Hell, The Book of Ahania, The Song of Los, Asia, and 
Africa. The kind helpfulness and thoroughness with which 
you have hitherto met my requests makes me bold to ask 
that you would furnish me with a brief general description 
of each of these — if indeed you can command sufficient 
leisure for the purpose. . . . — Yours very truly, 

Annie Gilchrist. 



8. — F. T. Palgrave to William Rossetti. 

[Welbeck Street.] 
I fiinc 1 862. 

Dear Rossetti, — . . . Tennyson when here looked at Miss 
Rossetti's poems, and expressed great pleasure to me at 
what he read. But one never gets him to formularize a 
neat Saturday or London Revieiu judgment on these 
matters. — Ever truly yours, 

F. T. Palgrave. 



9.— Dr Furnivall to William Rossetti. 

[This refers to the work which I was doing for the great 
English Dictionary projected by the Philological Society, and 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1862 7 

now in course of publication through the Clarendon Press. 
I received for sub-editing quotations proper to the letter L. 
(not any other letter), and attended to a large portion of 
them. I dare say however that my sub-editing work makes 
— and deserves to make — very little appearance in the final 
redaction of the Dictionary.] 

3 Old Square. 
\b June 1862. 

Dear Rossetti, — Many thanks for your note, with its offer 
from you to act as one of the sub-editors, and its announce- 
ment of coming extracts. . . . For a sub-editorship I shall 
be very pleased to entrust the extracts to you — for two or 
three letters say ; and will endeavour to fill in, or get filled 
in, the roots etc. that you have space for. , . , — Yours 
very truly, 

F. T. FURNIVALL. 

. . . Will you too bestow your carte on our Dictionary 
collection of contributors' likenesses? One of our best men, 
Eastwood, sent his carte up, and urged me to ask every 
reader for his phiz. This I am doing as I write about other 
matters, and have got a dozen in. The book will be one of 
some interest. 



10. — William Rossetti — Diary. 

[I give here some extracts from the Diary which I kept 
during my small continental trip with W. B. Scott. It will 
be easily understood that during this trip, and similarly 
during others later on, a great portion of my Diary consisted 
of rapid remarks upon the works of art which I inspected, 
and to some extent upon matters of scenery. These for the 
most part I suppress, as relating to things exceedingly well- 
known to travelled and cultivated readers, and as not being 
of such weight or development as to warrant quotation. 
Here and there some items of that kind are extracted — 



8 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

along with other items of a more general or more individual 
character.] 

Wednesday, 2 July 1862. — Started with Scott for Italy. 
. . . On to Paris. . . . 

Thursday, 3. — Campana Museum (Musee Napoleon 3), a 
most rich collection of old Italian paintings and sculpture, 
several of which seem unaccountable omissions from the 
selection made for South Kensington, Majolica fair ; Etrus- 
can vases, statues (antique), gems, ornaments, terra-cottas, 
etc. . . . The paintings impress me as a larger and more 
satisfactory show of the old Italian schools than any other 
I know. The old Umbrian school before Perugino, with a 
Botticelli tinge in greater purism, very lovely. . . . 

Wednesday, 9. — Padua. Went to a photograph and 
book shop, where the youth showed me a Giuseppe Giusti 
of Carducci's edition. I asked whether they had Rossetti 
in same series. " Yes," and produced it ; but it is now 
prohibited — prohibited at first appearance, afterwards per- 
mitted ; again prohibited within a fortnight or so. " What 
would be the penalty for selling ? " (which the youth was 
ready to do). " Non lieve pena." * Shrug of shoulder to 
enquiry why now forbidden. ^^ Era inio padre!' — "J/^ 7ie 
consolo." ■\ Had before this produced Teodorico's Life.X 
Sacristan (?) of S. Giustina called the soldiers 'ste destie.^ 
Omnibus-driver yesterday in Milan, same term to a monk 
(ie. all monks) I asked about, and would brusarli tutti. || 
Saw two Austrian (I assume) officers come into Pedrocchi's 
for dinner, and no hostility — the only case in which I have 
noticed any amalgamation whatever between the Austrians 
and Italians. ... In the evening to Venice. 

Friday, 11. — Met Inchbold. Took lodging 4205 Riva 
degli Schiavoni, 5 francs a night for a week. . . . Tea at 

* No light penalty. 

t He was my father. — Most glad to hear it. 

I I.e., a brief Life of Gabriele Rossetti, written by Teodorico Pietro- 
cola-Rossetti. 

§ Those beasts. || Burn them all. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1862 9 

Inchbold's. Conversation with his landlady, an intelligent 
woman of some thirty-four. Venice very stagnant these 
three years ; wants the Austrians turned out, and things 
would revive ; could turn them out, as the Italians have had 
a career of conquest through the whole land. Believes 
nothing — men and women die like plants. No time to say 
prayers. Pope and Devil much the same. Goes to church 
sometimes as it happens to come ; people go there to see 
each other and keep appointments. Many women are of 
her way of thinking. The lower classes who cannot read 
take down what they are told by the priests. Never goes to 
confession. . . . 

Mo7iday^ 14. — A curious instance of the stagnant un- 
business-like condition of Venice : — Scott, having burned a 
small hole in his trousers with a lucifer, wanted to have 
them repaired ; the landlady told us there is no such person 
as a jobbing tailor for such a thing. It could be given to 
a woman, and one must take one's chance of how it would 
be done. . . . Gondola to Murano. . . . Church under restora- 
tion for the last four years, but little or nothing done. The 
idea is to take away all the modernizations, bringing to light 
some concealed parts of the old work, and completing it 
in same style. Great mosaic Madonna over altar very fine. 
Custode remembered, on my referring to him, " Signor 
Roveschin," * who stayed there about two months, coming 
constantly with his bella inoglie.^ " They would be horrified 
if they saw its present condition," he said. Asked me to 
remember him to Ruskin, for whom he had conceived a 
great regard. Again to Scuola di San Rocco. Curious 
half-grotesque wood sculpture of Tintoret holding a scroll 
inscribed with a pictorial confession of faith ; easy enough 
to decipher, but did not get it sufficiently up. — The great cry 
in Venice is Acqua fresca — Fresca Vacqua — come ghiasso,^ 
and so on ; one enthusiast said, O eke ghiasso ! § . . . 

]Vediiesday, 16. — Ascended the great Campanile to the 
chief (ist) gallery: no stairs inside, but an inclined plane, 

* /.^., Ruskin. + Handsome wife. 

X Fiesh water — like ice. § Oh what ice ! 



10 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

making the ascent very easy. A splendid view. Canals 
among streets wholly invisible, roofs almost invariably 
tiled of the Italian brownish-red, with sufficient variation of 
tint — very good colour. Only a single puff of smoke from 
a factory-chimney. The bells, five or six of no noticeable 
size, began playing at a great rate from noon. About three 
hours here. . . . 

Monday, 21. — Saw nothing of Siena beyond a look into 
the Piazza del Popolo, with the fountain and the Casino de' 
Nobili, having to leave by the diligence for Rome at noon. 
Breakfast at the best cafe, del Greco ; only 50 cents the 
two, the cheapest we have had. Saw over shops the names 
Botticelli and F. Lippi. Left Siena by diligence. A fellow- 
traveller, wife of the head of the dogana at Radicofani (last 
station in Kingdom of Italy), herself a Pisan, quoting the 
line, Ahi Pisa vitiiperio delle genti, says the Pisans turn it 
into Vita e imperio delle genti.* 

Wednesday, 23. — Magnificent masses of oleanders topping 
the garden-walls in the streets as you enter Rome by the 
Piazza del Popolo. . . . 

Sunday, 27, — Scott reasonably well set up again. We 
took a vettwa to La Riccia, to see Stillman. . . . Our driver 
said that at about the age of fourteen he had been groom to 
one Masini (?), aide-de-camp of Garibaldi at the siege of 
Rome in 1849; and at his death had been turned over to 
Garibaldi, who would often take him by the head and give 
him a twirl round. Had a strong feeling for him. Said 
that two or three years ago Garibaldi came to Rome dressed 
like a sportsman, and took refreshment at a cafe ; when the 
waiter offered him his change, he said he would take it when 
he next came to Rome. Papal gendarmes, being on the 
scent, surrounded the cafe next morning, and found Garibaldi 
had gone, leaving a note to say that, if anybody wanted him, 
he had better come after him. Probably a fable ; and so 

"* The Dantesque reader will understand what is here referred to. 
Dante, in connection with the Ugolino tragedy, denounces Pisa as 
"opprobrium of mankind." The Pisans turn this into "life and 
sovereignty of mankind." 



WILLIAM ROSSETTl— DIARY, 1862 11 

thinks Stillinan, who is of opinion that the papal policy has 
been the most prudent and successful possible under the 
circumstances ; the Sardinian dynasty unloved by the people 
throughout Italy, and the Republican party much on the 
increase, and likely to make some energetic move. The 
annexation of Rome quite uncertain, unless through some 
such move. . . . 

Sunday, August 2. — Took donkeys to Nemi, etc. . . . The 
donkey-man says that the ex-king of Naples, now making 
his villeggiatura at La Riccia, is charitable, distributing alms 
to the poor every Saturday evening. The Pope too is ready 
to give, throwing money out of his carriage when he goes 
to Castel Gandolfo. Antonelli gives nothing, and is un- 
popular. . . . 

Thursday, 7. — . . . Passed through Leghorn and Pisa. 
... To Campo Santo, where I do not find my impressions 
of the GozzoHs enhanced. The Last Judgment of Orcagna 
a great work spite of its salient imperfections, perhaps 
greater than the Triumpli of DeatJi. The Giottos and so-called 
Buffalmaccos very fine of their kind, the latter noticeable 
for natural conception and treatment. Orcagna's Ascensmi 
very powerful in unity of impulse. The sculpture over portal 
of Baptistery fine. " Roma o la Morte " and " Abbasso il Papa 
Re " * are the chief inscriptions on the walls ; in one place, 
"Viva Iddio e Garibaldi." f . . . 

Friday, 8. — Giottos (?) in the small room out of the Campo 
Santo — Frescoes : i . Virgin and Child, head and shoulders ; 
a majestic and beneficent head of the Virgin. 2. Young 
male saint, head and shoulders, with head bowed as in 
adoration (same character of work as the fresco in the 
National Gallery). 3. Elderly female saint, in monastic 
drapery (head), very earnest, set expression. 4. Head and 
shoulders of Baptist, arm (cut off) raised in preaching or 
baptizing ; left held a rod (probably in act of baptizing 
Christ). 5. Two heads and shoulders of angels apparently 
holding the robe of Christ during baptism ; foremost head 

* Down with the Pope King, 
t Long live God and Garibaldi. 



12 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

very beautiful, with expression of rapt satisfaction. 6. Head 
and shoulders of a young man playing a harp, no sign of 
saintship. 7. Half-figure of an aged saint writing, the 
paper laid across left knee ; very serious, absorbed expres- 
sion — good quality of drawing. A very rude fresco in 
three compartments, of the story of some episcopal saint, 
and a tempera Coronation of Virgin^ seemingly dated 143 1 
(same room), cannot be Giotto's. The Annunciation over 
the arch of this door is on the whole the most satisfactory 
of Gozzoli's pictures. . . . 

Monday, 11. — . . . Between Bourg and Macon. . . . My 
neighbour in the carriage came out against Napoleon's 
government. He was once going to use an opposition- 
ticket at an election, and was walked off by the police ; and, 
if he had not kept out of the way, would have been locked 
up for a day until the election was over. Mayors and other 
officials are compelled to take-in the government papers, 
which otherwise would have very little circulation. French- 
men learn the news of their own country from extracts, in 
French papers, from foreign ones, especially the Independance 
Beige, and even these expurgated. The French army has 
no business in Rome. Nobody can understand Napoleon's 
Roman policy. His son not likely to succeed ; but the 
Orleanists, and still more the Legitimists, are small parties. 
— Travelling all night. 

Tuesday, 12. — . . . London by 8.30 P.M. 



II. — John Ruskin to Dante Rossetti. 

[Nothing came of Mr Ruskin's suggestion that he 
might possibly like to become an inmate of the house 
which Rossetti was now taking but had not yet entered, 
in Cheyne Walk. The " Banner picture," cherished by 
Professor Eliot Norton, is the watercolour Before the Battle, 
mentioned in my volume entitled Ruskin, Rossetti, Pne- 
rapJiaelitisni. By "your Sister," Ruskin, I think, meant 



JOHN RUSKIN, 1862 13 

Maria rather than Christina. He knew more of the 
former.] 

Milan. 
12 July 1862. 

My dear Rossetti, — So often I've tried to write ; and 
could not, having had to fight with various fears and sick- 
nesses such as I never knew before, and not thinking it 
well to burden you with them. I write now only to 
thank you for your kind words in your letter to Jones. 
I do trust that henceforward I may be more with you — as 
I am able now better to feel your great powers of mind, 
and am myself more in need of the kindness with which 
they are joined. There are many plans in my thoughts : 
assuredly I can no more go on living as I have done. 
Jones will tell you what an aspen-leaf and flying speck 
of dust in the wind my purposelessness makes me. They 
are dear creatures, he and his wife both, and have done 
much to help me ; and I believe there is nothing they would 
not do if they could, 

I am vexed, and much (perhaps more than about any 
other of the inconveniences caused by my being ill), that 
I have missed William, who must be by this time at 
Venice, as far as I can hear. A letter of his, received just 
as I was leaving town, got thrown into a drawer by 
mistake instead of my desk, and I could not answer it. 

Among the shadowy plans above spoken of, the one 
that looks most like light is one of spending large part 
of every year in Italy, measuring and copying old 
frescoes. Perhaps some time we might have happy days 
together, if there were any place in Italy where you cared 
to study — or be idle. I've been thinking of asking if I 
could rent a room in your Chelsea house; but I'm so 
tottery in mind that I have no business to teaze any one 
by asking questions. 

Jones has done me some divine sketches. How he 
does love you, and reverence your work ! Did Norton — 
of course he did — write to you about the Banner picture ? 



U ROSSETTI PAPERS 

I've kept his letter to me about it. How he appreciated 
it ! I never knew a picture so enjoyed. 

I don't deserve a letter, but I've had things sometimes 
before now that I didn't. I'm here at all events, if you 
have word to say to me. Remember me with deep and 
sincere respect to your Sister, and believe me ever affec- 
tionately yours, 

J. RUSKIN. 



12. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[" The Francesca " is no doubt a Paolo and Francesca — 
perhaps the one which went into the collection of Mr 
James Leathart, a watercolour triptych. The Joan of Arc 
was an oil-picture — its purchaser, Mr James Anderson 
Rose, a solicitor. "Marshall" I understand to be Mr 
Peter Paul Marshall, a member of the Morris firm. Mr 
Whistler first became known to my brother towards this 
date : he lived in Chelsea, not far from the Cheyne Walk 
house.] 

59 Lincoln's Inn Fields. 
21 August 1862. 

My dear Brown, — ... I have the Francesca to dispose 
of as yet, since Rose has settled on the Joan of Arc ; but 
the former would not be less than 100, — or 120 indeed, 
most likely, unless found impracticable. ... I am writing 
to ask Marshall, who wants to meet Whistler. — Your 

D. G. R. 



13. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[This extract from a letter, which may probably belong 
to August or September 1862, shows that my Brother was 
about to enter into an agreement with Mr W. J. Knewstub, 



J. A. FROUDE, 1862 15 

who soon afterwards joined him at Cheyne Walk. His 
position might be regarded as something between that of 
pupil and of artistic assistant : as quasi-pupil he paid a sum 
down, and, though quasi-assistant, he did not receive any 
salary. "My 5s. table" must have been a compact 
painting-table which had been made to Rossetti's own 
design, and whicli, proving highly convenient, remained in 
use for many years — perhaps up to his final illness.] 

59 Lincoln's Inn Fields. 
[1862-—? Autui/in\ 

Dear Brown, — ... I want to speak to you about 
making an agreement with Knewstub. I have got my 5s. 
table in use : it is sublime ! — Your 

D. G. R. 



14. — J. A. Froude to William Rossettl 

[Mr Froude was at this time Editor of Fraser's 
Magazine, to which I contributed a few articles on subjects 
of Fine Art. His note shows that I had offered to pro- 
duce a paper upon Blake — forming a review of Gilchrist's 
book, I did not however write any such paper ; coming 
to the conclusion, as I proceeded with my work supple- 
mental to the volumes in question, that I should not be a 
wholly appropriate critic for that with which I had so 
closely connected myself] 

6 Clifton Place, Hyde Park. 
20 October 1862. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — It will be a real pleasure to me 
if you will write on Blake. He has always seemed to me 
to be an instance of the prodigal carelessness of Nature, 
which gives a man so often half the qualities which make 
up genius, and, by leaving out the others, makes them 
almost useless. Sound understanding is too usually the 



16 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

thing that is with-held. I do not know whether it was so in 
Blake's case. — Ever faithfully yours, 

J. A. Froude. 



15. — Frederick Tatiiam to William Rossetti. 

[Mr Tatham had, in early youth, been one of the latest 
band of Blake's admirers and personal acquaintances. I 
was put into communication with him by Mrs Gilchrist, 
with a view to clearing up some disputable points in the 
Life by Gilchrist, and more especially to further the 
compilation, which I had undertaken, of a Catalogue 
Raisonnc of Blake's paintings and designs, to form a 
portion of the Gilchrist volumes — as in fact it now does. 
Mr Tatham was, when I knew him, a man well advanced 
in middle age, of rather bulky but far from tall figure, with 
an expressive face and tone of conversation. He was by 
profession a sculptor, but I think with little incoming 
practice. Afterwards he became a Minister in the Irvingite 
Church — perhaps an "Angel." His MS., TJie Epic Theory in 
Art, was well worth reading — the work of a vigorous and 
independent, though not very nicely balanced, mind and 
pen. He did not, I believe, succeed in publishing it.] 

Forest Gate, Essex. 
6 November 1862, 

Dear Sir, — I shall have much pleasure in replying ; but 
it will not always be possible for me to remember, as I 
have sold Mr Blake's works for thirty years. I will take 
them in your order. Mr Evans bought nearly all I had 
latterly. . . . The List directed to Mr Ferguson of Tyne- 
mouth : This I forget, but I have no doubt they alluded to 
a batch of very fine ones printed in oil and painted on in 
water afterwards by Blake himself. They were printed in 
a loose press from an outline sketched on paste-board ; the 
oil colour was blotted on, which gave the sort of impression 
you will get by taking the impression of anything zvet. 



JOHN LINNELL, JUN., 1862 17 

There was a look of accident about this mode which he 
afterwards availed of, and tinted so as to bring out and 
favour what was there rather blurred. I do not know that 
I can tell you these seven : but Nebuchadnezzar was one ; 
Pity like a New-born Babe, Neivton; The Saviour another, 
Eve ivith the Serpent another, Elijah in the Chariot another ; 
and the seventh I do not remember. . . . 

The finished plates have not been in my possession for 
many years. . . . The printing in oil was a favourite 
system, as he coloured them up : he did a good many, of 
other subjects, in this way. . . . 

I am, dear Sir, now going to ask you a favour. Some 
three years ago I sat down and wrote a very elaborate 
brochure which is not yet printed — it is in legible MS. 
entitled. The Epic Theory in Art: an Enquiry into the 
present depressed State of the Art of Sculpture, with Reasons 
and a Remedy. This is a most earnest and very concise 
and (I think) vigorous production, proposing a school for 
Sculptors, and going into the subject in a critical manner 
so as to leave nothing to be desired according to its 
object. Now I find it difficult to get an ear ; but I have 
got a few people to attempt it, and they have been much 
interested. Mr Gladstone spoke most highly, also the 
Reader at Smith & Elder's, Cornhill, Mr Williams. . . . Shall 
I forward it? I know you will dip into if you get it — at 
least all have who have had it. — In haste, very faithfully 
yours, 

Frederick Tatham. 



i6. — John Linnell, Jun., to William Rossettl 

[In the course of my Blake researches I was privileged 
to call at the house (Red Hill) of the admirable painter 
John Linnell, then aged but still vigorous, and to inspect 
all his Blake treasures, including the water-colour series 
from Dante. Immediately afterwards his Son the engraver 

B 



18 ROSSETTl PAPERS 

was so good as to send me an explanatory letter, from 
which I present an extract.] 

Redstone Wood, Red Hill, Surrey. 
2 December 1862. 

My dear Sir, — . . . As to the numbers of the drawings, 
I have just counted them through carefully. There are, 
as you state, sixty-eight drawings, and undoubtedly belong- 
ing to the Hell, and mostly marked with the numbers of 
the cantos. ... In the other folio there was a drawing 
which belonged to the Dante designs, and which might 
perhaps be placed between the Hell and Purgatory. It 
was scarcely more than a pencil-sketch — and gave the 
nine circles (Limbo i — Minos 2 — Cerberus 3 — etc.), 
beginning at the bottom : and in the margin is written : 
" This is upside down when viewed from hell's hole, which 
ought to be at the top. But right when viewed from 
Purgatory after they have passed the centre," etc. In 
margin is also written : " It seems as if Dante's Supreme 
Good was something superior to the Father of Jesus. For, 
if he gives his rain to the evil and good, and his sun to 
the just and unjust, he could never have builded (?) 
Dante's Hell ; nor the Hell of the Bible neither, in the way 
our parsons explain it. It must have been originally 
formed by the Devil himself; and so I understand it to 
have been. Whatever book is for vengeance for sin, and 
whatever book is against the forgiveness of sins, is not of 
the Father, but of Satan the accuser and Father of Hell." 

It is rather difficult to read, but I think the above is 
rightly copied. . . . Faithfully yours, 

John Linnell, Jun. 



17. — Anne Gilchrist to William Rossettl 

["The poetical portion of Vol. II." is the editing and 
elucidation, done by my Brother, of Blake's poems.] 



FREDERICK TATHAM, 1862 19 

Brookbank. 
II December 1862. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — ... I have not (that I can 
find) a copy of the two recipes you speak of for wood- 
cutting on copper and on pewter ; would feel greatly 
obliged by a copy of them. It is quite true that Blake 
had no process by which he could print in more than one 
colour. If you look closely at any of his engraved books, 
you will see the entire design outlined with whatever may 
happen to be the colour of the writing. Thus, in the 
Daughters of Albion, all the people have green noses, a 
phenomenon rather startling to my unartistic eyes. . . . 

I have received since I last wrote to you proofs of the 
whole of the poetical portion of Vol. .II. ; and, indeed, I 
hardly know how to speak adequately of the satisfaction 
and delight with which I read them. Never, I think, was 
the task of editorship so admirably performed, if the aim 
of editorship be to quicken the reader's insight and enjoy- 
ment. I need not tell you I read your explanation of The 
Mental Traveller with wide-open eyes. Certainly that 
"Idea" binds the most chaotic, disjointed, obscure-looking 
poem that ever was written, into a harmonious, connected, 
nobly pregnant whole. My dear Husband would have been 
beyond measure pleased with it. — Yours very truly, 

Anne Gilchrist. 



18. — Frederick Tatmam to William Rossettl 

Forest Gate, Essex. 
16 Decetnber 1862. 

My dear Sir, — The Ancient of Days, with the compasses, 
was the subject that Blake finished for me on his death- 
bed. He threw it down, and said, " There, I hope Mr 
Tatham will like it ; " and then said, " Kate, I will draw 
your portrait ; you have been a good wife to me." And he 
made a frenzied sketch of her ; which when done, he sang 



20 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

himself joyously and most happily — literally with songs — 
into the arms of the grim enemy, and yielded up his sweet 
spirit. This is related by Mr Smith in the book alluded to, 
Mr Gilchrist's study was full of pigeon-holes and papers 
without end, and gave one an idea of what authorship was. 
. . . — Very faithfully yours, 

Frederick Tatham. 



19.— John Linnell, Jun., to William Rossetti. 

Redstone Wood, Red Hill, Surrey. 
21 December 1862. 

My dear Sir, — There are twenty original drawings by 
Blake illustrating the poem by Philips in Thornton's Virgil 
(I forgot to show you these drawings). They are delicately 
executed in Indian ink, more or less finished ; a trifle 
larger than the wood-engravings, and occasionally slightly 
varying from them. Sixteen of these subjects, cut by Blake 
himself, appear in Thornton's work — also three of them cut 
by another. One of these drawings (subject, the two shep- 
herds standing together, and sheep etc. behind, same size as 
others) is not engraved. We have no drawing of the larger 
block engraved by Blake, given in Thornton as frontispiece. 

The above-referred-to seventeen wood-blocks were the 
only ones Blake ever cut. The drawings were executed a 
little before the book was published. 

The dates of the Visionary Heads would be either 18 19 
or 1820: the three which have dates written on them are 
all October 18 19. . . . — Faithfully yours, 

John Linnell, Jun. 



20. — Anne Gilchrist to William Rossetti. 

[Mr Linnell (Sen.) regarded Mr Tatham with antipathy. 
Mr William Haines, who had been intimate with Alex- 



JOHN LINNELL, SEN., 1862 21 

ander Gilchrist, took a friendly interest in the Life of Blake, 
compihng the Hst of Blake's engravings, and rendering 
other services.] 

Brookbank. 
21 December 1862. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — . . . Tatham always uses the 
word " millboard," and says he has some of them, or 
had, still by him. I am afraid we must give up all hope 
of getting at the rights of the oil-printing process. Linnell 
would hardly speak so positively of the inaccuracy of 
Tatham's account (as he does not know ivho wrote it) 
unless he had good grounds for doing so ; but he says it 
would " take too much time to set it right." I believe the 
honest truth to be he does not himself thoroughly under- 
stand it, but knows, as an artist, Tatham's process to be 
an impossible one. Mr Haines, who has some practical 
acquaintance with painting, thinks that to paint in water- 
colours on the top of oils in that way is quite impracticable. 
So perhaps it will be on the safe side not to attempt any 
explanation. . . . — Yours very truly, 

A. Gilchrist. 



21. — John Linnell, Sen., to William Rossettl 

[The starting - point of this extract is a report that 
Blake had done some heraldic drawing in his youth.] 

Redstone Wood. 

24 December 1862. 

Dear Sir, — , . . The criticism upon Blake's Dragons 
would apply just as well to Turner for his picture of 
faso7i in the National Gallery, where the Dragon is quite 
as heraldic in its character as any of Blake's, and even 
more so. I remember another picture in the National 
Gallery, by Turner, which has a terrific dragon in it, high 
up on a rock. But the fact is, dragons are rather un- 
common. There are none in the Zoological Gardens. 



22 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

They are traditional, and all have been drawn from one 
type, or nearly so, and hence unavoidable similarity. 
Blake however has given a sublimity of character to his 
dragons and serpents which we look in vain for elsewhere ; 
and those who could not see the grandeur of Blake's con- 
ceptions were always spiteful in their criticisms, from a 
desire to bring that down to their low level which they 
could not reach. I believe it is in art as in the highest 
knowledge — the ^uxiKog or sensuous man receiveth not 
the things of the Spirit : they are foolishness to him, and 
he is unable to know them because they are spiritually 
discerned. — Yours, 

J. L., Sen. 



22. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[The suggestion that " dirt " might be " quite essential " 
for a dinner of which Brown was to partake is one of 
those jocularities to which one loses the clue with lapse 
of years. It would rather seem that Brown had been 
proposing to dine cheap at some eating-house not noted 
for nicety. Marshall and Goss are Peter Paul Marshall, 
and a picture buyer of those days, Captain Goss.] 

1 6 Cheyne Walk. 
7 January 1863. 

My dear Brown, — Do come and dine with vie here at 
six to - morrow. The dinner will at any rate thus be the 
cheapest possible ; and, if dirt is quite essential, I will even 
turn a few dogs into the room for a day and a night, 
being the dirtiest animals I can well get at. ... I write 
the same request to Marshall with this. — Your affectionate 

Gabriel. 

If you can come by daylight, so much the better ; as 
I have two pictures by Scott which I want to show Marshall 
with an eye to Goss. 



WILLIAM HAINES, 1863 23 



23. — William Haines to William Rossettl 

Walberton, Arundel. 
5 February 1863. 

Dear Sir, — Having seen at last the Petworth Blakes, 
you may (if it is not too late) add something to the 
mere titles of them in your Catalogue, suggested by what- 
ever I am going to say. In the Procession of Spenser's 
Characters I found a picture between 4 and 5 feet long 
by a foot and a few inches high — same dimensions probably 
as the Pilgrimage — painted on paper laid on canvas ; colours 
much faded, or rather clouded over by an uniform tone 
of brown yellow — effect of varnish. Am not quite 
certain I should have discovered the subject at once, had 
I not known it beforehand. There are puzzling figures 
of an allegoric sort above (in the sky), one like the 
Almighty. In the background, Gothic buildings, cathedral 
etc. The Procession itself presents a rather meagre epitome 
of so rich a theme ; the figures, and especially the horses, 
very archaic and singular. I could not identify many of 
the personages, nor did there seem many. A grand mediseval 
drama performed by a limited company with old costumes 
and properties of the siege of Troy (there is more than 
one wooden horse by the way) it might be compared to, 
though not justly or accurately. To be more serious — the 
Red-Cross Knight and Una go first ; beside them the 
Lion and a wretched crippled little dragon. Then comes, 
on foot, a hermit with a baby in his arms. Next, a female 
on horseback — a figure something between Florimel and 
the Wife of Bath, but grand — with a free and glorious air. 
Who this was, or who the rest were, I could not read ; 
though in a nude Hercules - like figure I recognized our 
old friend Talus because he carried a flail, and I suspect 
Sir Artegall himself was not far off. You may safely say 
the picture is not equal to the Pilgrimage ; is neither so 
elaborate, correct, or exhaustive. 

The Satan in the Infernal Regions, when the butler 



24 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

handed it to me, was simply a black blister, till I took it 
to the light. It is a " fresco," I presume (the Processioti is 
merely a water-colour drawing) ; highly finished and rich in 
colour, or was so once before it turned so dark, ruined by 
time and varnish. Satan stands on a rock — a nude figure 
unlike Fuseli ; no spear and shield, or armour with navel 
showing through it, etc. Flames and rocks, and a multi- 
tude of figures — one on his knees hugging himself and 
howling, identical with a figure in Uriseji. I noticed a 
curious appearance or texture about the flesh, like colour- 
ing over a chalk-engraving ? There is one figure, a woman 
with manacles on her wrists. Couldn't make out the sub- 
ject — that is, it may not be " Satan calling up his Legions." 
An elaborate and fine example, but obscured and spoiled 
by time and varnish. Is this picture in the Descriptive 
Catalogue ? 

The Last Judgment is small (14 inches by 12 at a guess); 
so the figures (there being such a multitude of them) are 
rather minute, scarcely over two inches the biggest. It is 
highly finished as to drawing, but slight in colour, the white 
paper predominating everywhere save on the side of the 
unlucky, where there is most colour, the greater warfnth. 
Some of the figures among the blessed are of extreme 
loveliness. After reading the description in the Letter to 
Ozias Humphrey (not to mention the Vision in your book), 
the picture itself is likely to disappoint on the score of 
grandeur and impressiveness. In those respects it is not 
equal to the engraving in Blair. It is (after the descrip- 
tion aforesaid) like the same matter expressed in delicate 
and beautiful hieroglyphic. Under glass, and in good 
preservation. Signed " W. Blake inv. & del. 1808," . , . 
— Yours very sincerely, 

Wm. Haines. 



JOHN RUSKIN, 1863 25 



24. — Anne Gilchrist to William Rossetti. 

Brookbank. 

2 May 1863. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — . . . There is one point on 
which I do feel sorry and tenacious — that the notion 
should get abroad, as I believe it has done, that my dear 
Husband left the work very incomplete, and that a great 
deal (instead of a very little save and except this Catalogue) 
has been done to it. Whenever you have the opportunity 
to contradict this, I should be very grateful to you for 
doing so. He left it completed — and all the insertions put 
together would not (apart from quotations) occupy half-a- 
dozen pages. Perhaps the best plan would be to speak 
emphatically on this point in a preface ? . . . — Yours very 
truly, 

Anne Gilchrist. 

Mr Riviere of Oxford is the gentleman who writes that 
Blake had worked as a Herald-painter in his youth. 



25. — John Ruskin to William Rossettl 

[This note refers to a book of uncoloured Japanese 
landscapes, of a direct naturalistic treatment, which I had 
recently bought, and had produced for Ruskin's inspection. 
He is more complimentary here to Japanese art than he 
has been in some other utterances.] 

[Denmark Hill.] 
I ^ /tine 1863. 

Dear Rossetti, — The book is delightful, and thank you 
much for sending it. I should like to go and live in 
Japan. 

I'm going to hunt up Gabriel — but am so good-for- 



2G ROSSETTI PAPERS 

nothing and full of disgusts that I'm better out of his way : 
still, I'm going to get into it. — Always yours truly, 

J. RUSKIN. 

I return Japan by book-post. The seas and clouds are 
delicious, the mountains very good. 



26. — W. J. Stillman to William Rossettl 

Olevano, nr. Rome. 
\b June 1863. 

My dear Rossetti, — . . . The immediate need of my 
writing is to have you send me a copy of Eraser with 
that absurd (they say) defence of slavery, in which Ruskin 
has been committing a felo de se, I think they call it 
What in the world could have possessed him to do such 
a thing? Does he know anything about slavery, having 
never seen a slave ? or does he by abstract reasoning prove 
a falsehood ? or that he believes it ? which is the same 
thing with him. I'd like to put the argumentiini ad hominem 
to him, make him my nigger three months, to show him 
what an abstraction may be worth. But do send up the 
article, that I may measure for myself the present devi- 
ation of the compass, and find where our friend's north 
pole has got to. What a pity it is that Ruskin did not 
see years ago that nobody was affected by his speculations, 
and that, in general, opinions and theories go for breath, 
and that substantial positive facts are the only Archimedes' 
fulcrum ! All the influence he ever gained was based on 
his having observed certain facts, and he is now destroying 
it by the most fantastical and baseless vagaries. ... It 
grieves me much that he will destroy the influence he might 
have in spheres where he has knowledge, by dabbling with 
things of which he can know nothing, . . . 

The copy of your Sister's poems you sent me by post 
after your return to London was confiscated in the Post 
Office, I presume as heretical or revolutionary. 



ANNE GILCHRIST, 1863 27 

What is your England doing to so utterly alienate the 
only nation in the world which has either kinship or organic 
sympathy with her? It is a difficult game she is playing 
in the world, and one that makes her few friends. I happened 
to be dining the other day with a Spaniard, a Frenchman, 
a Belgian, a German, and an American ; and they all agreed 
in cordial detestation of England, and in a willingness to 
join in a war for her destruction. The Spaniard and 
German were very intelligent men, quite capable of esti- 
mating the spirit of their countrymen ; and both declared 
that they only expressed the prevalent sentiment among 
the people of their countries, . . . — Believe me (war or 
no war) ever your sincere friend, 

W. J. Stillman. 



27. — Anne Gilchrist to William Rossetti. 

Earl's Colne. 

ig July 1863. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — Ti7'iel and my MS. copy of the 
French Revohition are, I regret to say, at Brookbank. . . . 
The moment I return home, which will not however be till 
Michaelmas, I will look them out for Mr Swinburne. . . . 
Doubtless, Mr Swinburne being now in the full tide of 
writing and thinking on the subject, the delay will be a very 
vexatious one to him — most sincerely therefore do I regret 
it. . . , Mr Linnell is the only possessor I know of an original 
French Revolution. But he, I fear, is by no means a lending 
man. I look forward with immense interest and curiosity 
to reading Mr Swinburne's interpretation of the Prophetic 
Books ; not without a lurking suspicion, though, he may 
have been insensibly led here and there to create a meaning 
out of his own great abundance. I don't see however that 
the reader has any right to quarrel with this, since he is 
a clear gainer by it. . . . — Yours very truly, 

Anne Gilchrist. 



28 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

By the by, I saw my cousin Major Carvvardine a few days 
ago, about whom you expressed some curiosity on account of 
his American adventures. He has been, I find, two years 
in the army of the Potomac, under Generals Maclellan, 
Burnside, etc. ; has fought in ten battles, one of which lasted 
seven days ; and was never wounded but once, and that 
only with a sword-cut in the leg. . . . The pay is capital, his 
as a major being the same as that of a major-general in the 
English army. He tells me the accounts of the miseries and 
hardships endured by the army of the Potomac are much 
exaggerated ; and that, in fact, they have not at all exceeded 
what are inevitable in a military campaign ; that the com- 
missariat is well managed, and they never suffered from 
want of provisions except occasionally during forced marches. 
He also speaks very favourably of his comrades in arms, 
though it took him some time to get to like them. . . . To 
give you a notion of his nerve and strength — he stopped a 
runaway horse the other day, stepping into its path, and 
throwing his arms round its neck. 



28. — Madox Brown to Lucy Brown (Rossetti). 

[I understand the date of this letter to be 1863, when 
Oliver M. Brown, born in January 1855, was eight years 
of age.] 

4 Bath Terrace, Tynemouth, Northumberland. 
[1863]. 

Dearest Lucy, — Here we are, safe and comfortable, after 
a very delightful and smooth passage in the Wa7isbcck, 
London and Newcastle steamer. . . . Tynemouth is full of 
character and local colour, if not beauty, and there are 
fair sands. But North and South Shields are the wonderful 
places — at least to look at, for we have not been in them ; 
and the Tyne all the way up to Newcastle is one of the 
wonderful sights in Europe, though people don't seem to 



PROFESSOR NORTON, 1863 29 

know it. The most wonderful pictures might be made of 
it ; only it would be more for such men as Turner or 
Anthony than myself For want of habit in painting 
shipping and suchlike, it would take me longer than 
would pay. Nolly has been quite humpbacked since we 
left, with stiff neck and a boil on his back, and does not 
seem well ; otherwise he enjoyed himself, and behaved 
very well, and became wonderfully intimate with the 
sailors and passengers, whom he astonished not a little 
by talking scientifically about Yarmouth Roads and other 
prominent parts of our route. . . . — Your affectionate Papa, 

Ford Madox B. 



29. — Professor Norton to Dante Rossetti. 

Shady Hill, Cambridge, Mass. 
24 August 1863. 

My dear Rossetti, — I want to hear of you, and to know 
of your life and work. Your pictures bring you to my 
thoughts so often and so delightfully that it seems as if 
we held frequent communication — but I want now some- 
thing more direct and personal. In the midst of our great 
war it is pleasant to turn to your peaceful occupations. I 
give my time and my work to the cause for which we 
are contending — the good old cause, the cause of justice 
and liberty ; and I am happy in being able to bear my 
part (though not in the field) in this contest. But the in- 
tense interests of the times are wearing on one's heart. . . . 

You wrote to me in one of your letters of your great 
delight in the work of your friend Jones. I remember 
well meeting him one evening at the Brownings', where he 
had brought one of his wonderful drawings, in which I 
was deeply interested. I wish I could see other drawings 
of his. I have no money during the war to spend for 
works of art — but I want to give my wife a Christmas 
present, and I know that I could give her nothing that 
would please her more than a drawing by Jones. Will 



30 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

you please send me word as to his prices. . . . And this 
reminds me to ask you whether I can obtain one of the 
drawings that you or Holman-Hunt made years ago for 
the Tennyson. I remember seeing them at that httle 
private exhibition in 1857 where were so many of the 
best things ever done in England. Now I in vain tell 
admirers and non-admirers of your work that it is not to 
be judged by the engravings ; that they represent very 
partially and very imperfectly, sometimes even falsely, the 
character of it ; and that no one can fully appreciate the 
real feeling in those designs unless they have seen the 
original. . . . 

There is hope for Art in this country. The true ideas 
— the ideas the P. R. B. have done so much to make clear 
— are extending among our younger men, both painters 
and architects, and we shall before long have some good 
work to show. But there is as usual danger of extrava- 
gance, and of admiration of the weaknesses as well as 
the excellencies of those masters whose work has impressed 
the imagination of our younger men. , . . 

I have had one or two very sad letters from Ruskin 
of late — so sad as to make me very anxious about him. 
If }'ou have seen him lately, I wish you would tell me 
how he seemed to you, and what prospect there is of his 
regaining health. He is almost as wrong about our war 
as poor Carlyle ; but it is not this that troubles me about 
him, but his general condition of despondency and gloom. 

May I remind you that you once offered to get for me 
a cast from Keats' face? If it may still be had, will you 
get it for me? ... I am always faithfully your friend, 

Charles Eliot Norton. 



30. — William Rossetti — Diary. 

[This Diary gives a slight account of the only conti- 
nental trip in which I ever accompanied my Brother. As 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1863 31 

that circumstance lends a sort of joint personality to the 
Diary, I extract its jottings relative to buildings, pictures, 
etc., more freely than I do in most other cases. Both he 
and I had been in Belgium in earlier years, but separately.] 

Thursday, 3 September 1863. — Left London with 
Gabriel — Dover. Fine passage to Calais — bright day with 
strong diffused white clouds. . . . Walk on the ramparts 
laid out in tiers of tree-bordered walks, with flower-pots 
here and there, remarkably pretty. . . . Walk on the pier 
at dusk. Dessin's Hotel now in the building of Quillac's 
Hotel, the old site being abandoned, and forming (as I 
understand) the Musee. Very empty, only four at table 
d'hote, ourselves included. No ices procurable in all Calais. 
Hogarth's Gate a characteristic-enough piece of rococo 
work on a smallish scale. 

Friday, 4. — Visited the Musee, held in the old Hotel Dessin 
— a spacious building with a white courtyard bordered 
with pollard limes. A moderate number of pictures, with a 
reasonably good average for such a collection : one Madonna 
and Child is called a duplicate Correggio, and might be so. 
Two or three old Flemish pictures : one of them, a church- 
mass picture, has merit of a superior kind. A fine Poussin 
(Nicholas) of the exposure of Moses, in the classic style 
with the Nile God — fine in composition, handling somewhat 
coarse, though I could not say it is not original. Here 
they have the inscription taken off the column com- 
memorative of the landing of Louis XVHL Curiosities, 
Chinese, Indian, etc., very fair ; zoological collection ditto, 
including a set of the insects of France. — Left Calais at 
noon ; a grey dull day, but just before sunset a beautiful 
rose - flame - suffused sky, with a rainbow dimly double. 
Several goats, one by one, tethered — some windmills con- 
structed of thatch, cottage - roofs thatched over tiles. 
Several cottages painted a bright light azure, both on 
French and Belgian sides of the frontier. Many tall vines 
also, especially soon before reaching Brussels, between that 
and Ghent. Arrived towards 7 — Hotel de Flandre. 



32 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Saturday, 5. — Visited the Exhibition of Paintings ; which 
seems to be not so much {as I had understood) an Interna- 
tional Exhibition as the triennial Belgian Exhibition, whereto 
foreigners also are admitted. No Leys. Several works of 
interest and merit, but not what can be called a decidedly 
high average. Briguiboul's (Paris) Robespierre with his jaw 
shattered the best thing, and a very remarkable work. 
Church of Notre Dame des Sablons, Gothic, with nothing 
very noticeable in detail. The gallery (the best thing in 
Brussels I believe) of the Duke d'Aremberg is all topsy- 
turvy during repairs, and not to be seen. . . , After dinner 
to the Theatre du Pare, where was the ordinary company — 
a light comedy and comedietta both well played, especially 
a lout in the latter by Jolly. Saw the Grande Place and 
Hotel de Ville in going to the theatre, but too dusk to 
get much beyond the general effect, which is noticeably 
good. 

Sujtday, 6. — To the Museum of Paintings — some 700 
or 800, I think, with a very sufficient quantity of things to 
look at, Rubens, several large pictures, but not in extra- 
ordinary force. The finest of the large ones is perhaps an 
Adoration of the Magi, resembling some other of his versions 
of that subject. Of the smaller, a magnificent bust-portrait 
of a Duchess of the reigning family (or some such person- 
age) ; and, somewhat less remarkable, her husband ; also 
a small sketch of martyrdom of many ladies. A Tintoret 
of some legend of a saint, with splendid background of 
storm and wreck. Veronese, Ho/y Family and St Katharine, 
very fine, especially Katharine ; Adoration of Kings, with 
very delightful Annunciation to Shepherds in middle 
distance. A very clever allegorical sketchy picture by 
Jordaens — blue-grey tone, only just not so good as similar 
work by Rubens. An admirable portrait of a man by 
Rembrandt. Three smallish rooms of the old Flemish 
pictures ; several valuable but few first-rate. A smallish 
Van Eyck (John), Ado7'ation of the Kings, very finished, 
and fine tone. Two large pictures by Stuerbout, of 
martyrdom etc. of some female saint, high-class specimens. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1863 33 

A triptych by Van Orley, main subject The Pieta, extremely 
fine. — Zoological Gardens — a funny brown bear who lies 
down etc. at command, elephant, bison, lion, camel, etc. 
Gallinaceous birds, herons, etc., allowed to walk free about 
the garden. The enclosures spacious ; big lake for wild- 
fowl etc., far bigger than in London. Poultry named 
Padoues (I think chiefly from this part of Europe) with 
plumy heads, very pretty. — Went to the Cathedral : a 
satisfactory Gothic building, but not anything very special — 
surface outside much rechiselled, and inside all whitewashed. 
The much-vaunted painted glass does not include any of 
the very best class or period. Far the best is the great 
west window of the Last Judgment, circa 1500 (?), a very 
excellent specimen. Others, with portrait of Charles V., 
Salutation, etc., are good of their class, but not in any way 
surprising, and the class far from the best. — After dinner 
to the Theatre Lyrique (a saloon-theatre), and the Vaux- 
hall Concert by the Park ; but both bored us, and we left. — 
In the Museum is a noticeable series of largeish paintings 
by Philippe de Champaigne from the life of some Saint, 
comparable with the Lesueurs of St Bruno, and the best 
of them better ; one of the refectory, and the Saint com- 
manding a raven to hand up a loaf of bread ; and another 
of some miracle in the kitchen with a blaze of fire — this 
especially a very able work. A Giorgione (?) head of a 
beautiful young man, with peculiar and delightful costume, 
of which Gabriel took a memorandum. Preti Calabrese (the 
first picture I remember of his), a remarkable piece of 
energy and movement, a large picture of a woman stagger- 
ing two men whom she advances against. 

Monday, 7. — Left Brussels for Antwerp— a dull showery 
day, going on to heavy rain in the early afternoon, but 
clearing up fairly afterwards. To the Museum. Gabriel 
and I agree in thinking that the enormously vaunted 
Rubenses here are over-rated. TJie Crucifixion is a fine one, 
of a complete but not very striking order ; The Last Com- 
munion of St Jerome excellent, but not quite up to my 
reminiscence of it. The Adoration of the Kings is, on the 

C 



34 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

whole, rather a specimen of Rubens's offensive qualities. Of 
the others, there is none of the first class. A Titian, of 
Alexander VI. presenting a Sforza to Peter, is about 
the best " painter's picture " in the gallery. The old 
Flemish Van Ertborn Collection, not many masterpieces. 
To Church of St Jaques, where Rubens is buried. In 
the chapel containing his tomb, the picture where Rubens 
has represented himself as St George, his grandfather as 
Time, etc., is a very fine specimen for colour and beauty of 
the women. The Gardien, who used to be a schoolfellow 
of Leys, says a Rubens, descended from the painter's 
brother, is living to represent the family. We asked him 
about Leys's Hotel de Ville paintings ; and he said that we 
could call on Leys, who would accompany us if the works 
are not publicly visible : we are not likely to have the 
cheek for this. Some old pictures (twelve) of Acts of St 
Hubert, said to be by a follower of Memling, and one of 
them by Memling himself, much studied by Leys, says the 
Gardien ; also a pair of brass candlesticks in the Rubens 
chapel. A very leading large triptych by Bernard van 
Orley, of Last Judgment, and the donors, male and female, 
represented as old people, with family (under the protection 
of two Saints, being themselves as at time of marriage). To 
the Cathedral. The Descent from the Cross is certainly a 
very magnificent picture, somewhat black ; the lower part 
of the side-panel of The Salutatioji, with a trailing-tailed 
peacock, etc., most delightful. The two outside subjects, 
St ChristopJier and some hermit, not to be seen. The 
other great triptych. The Elevation of the Cross, with side- 
pieces connected therewith, contains perhaps a still greater 
number of astonishing excellencies. The outside panels, 
figures of Saints, are most gorgeous bits of work, and 
one woman of them (Katharine?) singularly beautiful and 
queenly. The high-altar piece, The Assumption of the 
Virgin, is a very distinguished and beautiful Rubens, not 
very interesting to me. There is a good deal of fine 
painted glass in the Cathedral ; notably, in one of the 
apse-chapels, figures of Kings etc. with Saints, light figures 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1863 35 

on a very deep indigoish-blue ground. — After dinner strolled 
out, and found very near our hotel (Grand Laboureur, 
Place de Meir) the house of Rubens ; a very large build- 
ing, done up in a horrid style some ten years ago. At 
night, to two dancing-places in the Rue Dyck. The bar- 
barism of dogcarts still prevails in Belgium. 

Tuesday^ 8. — Visited the Church of St Paul. The carved 
and coloured Purgatory etc. is not without something 
impressive. Rubens's Flagellatio7i fine, with high flesh- 
tints, yet quiet in general effect. This Church is surpris- 
ingly full of elaborate wood - carvings. To the Hotel de 
Ville. Leys's frescoes are said to be not begun yet, but 
only the ground laid ; and some other pictures of his 
were all entasses, to be removed somewhither. The old 
Inquisition-room, which seems to be used now as a police- 
court, has some remarkably fine decorative wood - carving 
on the rails ; and another room contains some specially 
excellent topographical oil - pictures from the history of 
Antwerp — two by Nicholas van Cleef, about 1530, and 
one about 1650. To St Augustine's, which contains 
Rubens's Marriage of St Katharine, a good fully-carried- 
out example, not amounting to very much, I think. To 
St Andre's, with the portrait and inscription to Mary 
Queen of Scots, and a series of small sketchy Saint- 
pictures by Rubens, done in some notably short time ; 
slight and rather poor affairs. To a private collection of 
pictures, M. de Wuits's, some hundred or so works, large 
and small. A very delightful interior by de Hooghe, with 
reflected lights, and a gentleman smoking a pipe. A grand 
life-sized nude study by Velasquez called Provietlieus, most 
masterly, and beautiful brown and grey tone of flesh ; 
also a good portrait by him, which I believe to be genuine 
but Gabriel doubts. A so-called Raphael, La Vie^ge au 
Lange, has, I should say, no pretence to genuineness. The 
miserable absurdity of re - painting is rife in Antwerp, 
several leading Rubenses and Vandycks in the Musee and 
the Churches being obviously mauled. — Getting among the 
old and out-of-the-way shops, we bought a good number 



36 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

of things : brass pots, gold ornament as worn by peasants, 
a large pot with blue figures of birds etc., a Dutch Bible 
with old prints, some valance for a bed. — To the Jardin 
de Zoologie, which is a splendid collection ; the total 
number of animals (I should say) equal to London, and 
some departments decidedly better filled. Reptiles few, no 
vivarium, and not much of rodents that we saw. The path 
as one enters is bordered by a row of splendid parrots on 
separate stands ; and further on there is a most magnifi- 
cent blue-and-yellow macaw, nearly double the size of 
an ordinary one. A vast number of small and moderate- 
sized birds, in large spaces, and multitudes of the same 
sort together. In this respect and generally, the laying- 
out of the space is excellent, the animals having ample 
room to move about in and be seen. A young elephant 
four years old, somewhat the size of a bullock, with a 
most flexible trunk ; a young blue-faced baboon, colour 
as yet dim ; two lion-cubs ; a remarkably fine rhinoceros ; 
several " dama " antelopes, very handsome, large spaces 
of bright chestnut-brown across white ; a complete skeleton 
of a whale ; several fine owls, especially a variety of the 
barn-owl (I saw it also in Brussels) much deeper in 
colour. The Falco Vocifer (colours somewhat as the 
dama) is a very beautiful bird. — Dined at the Restaurant 
Bertrand, nearly opposite our hotel, with Ostend oysters 
(small and choice — sink deeper than English in the shell) 
and cooked peach with rice ; a very good house, the 
reverse of cheap. 

Wednesday, g. — Left Antwerp for Ghent— a good deal 
of rain, especially in the later part of the day. Church 
of St Jaques, a fine massive unelaborate exterior. Church 
of St Nicholas; an able Coronation of tlie Virgin by Nicholas 
Roose, who shows to advantage elsewhere in Ghent. The 
Cathedral of St Bavon. Rubens's Bavon renouncing Soldier- 
sliip for the Cloister is a very splendid picture ; carried as 
far as his most finished pictures, with the freedom of his 
freest. The Van Eyck is an amazing piece of complete 
work, realizing the acme of its class of art. The four 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1863 37 

smaller and two larger copies by Coxcie of the compart- 
ments now in Berlin are very able copies, the latter more 
particularly. No painted glass here, nor elsewhere (that 
I saw) in Ghent. To the Museum of Paintings ; pretty 
fair in number, but not at all considerable in merit — a few 
better works marked in catalogue. One room is full of 
modern works, all or some of which gained the prizes of 
the Ghent Academy, to whom the building belongs. We 
bought another large earthenware pot, and two brass 
candle-holders to be hung against a wall. The old houses 
in Ghent have great character and interest, and seem 
generally to have more detail than those in Antwerp. — 
Bruges, Hotel du Commerce, where there is a staircase 
with very remarkable rails — figures, in wood, of swans 
holding the uprights in the form of bulrushes, all painted.* 
The hotel is a spacious fine old building altogether. 

Thursday, lo. — Hospital of St John. The side com- 
partments of the Chasse appear to Gabriel and me to 
have undergone some not inconsiderable re-painting ; the 
groups on the gabled angles and roof not so. This is a 
less admirable production on the whole than some larger 
works by Memling — the great triptych, for instance, of 
the Marriage of St Katharine, with volets of the Behead- 
ing of the Baptist, and of Joh^i in Patinos, and (on the 
back of these) two Nuns and two men with patron Saints ; 
the Nuns especially can yield to nothing of Memling's. 
There are one or two other Memlings here, and a sprinkling 
of other old or oldish pictures worth notice ; one a Repose 
in Egypt, called a Vandyck, and might be his. The build- 
ing contains a good deal quaint and interesting. Two 
good bits of Gothic carving in tympanum over door, with 
numbers of figures, each of the two groups appearing to 
be the Death and Glorification of the Virgin. Bought two 
peacock-fans. To the Academy. The great Van Eyck 
of Virgin and Child ivitJi Saints George and Donatian afid 

■* I recollect having' called my brother's attention to these rails ; 
he was delighted with them, and took a pencil sketch, which I still 
possess. 



38 ROSSETTi PAPERS 

tJie Donor, a very wonderful work ; portrait of Van Eyck^s 
Wife most admirable ; Head of CJirist an utter failure. A 
very fine Memling, one of the outside panels being an 
extremely pretty Madonna and CJdld. Two anonymous 
Van Eyckish pictures,* of an unjust Judge arrested and 
flayed alive, excellent. The few other works of the older 
schools (the more modern not visible at present) are 
almost all of some decided interest and merit. To the 
Chapel said to be an imitation of the Chapel of the 
Holy Sepulchre. Here is some of the best painted glass 
I have seen in Belgium ; also a very good monument 
(about 1450) to a Count Adourne and his wife, in black 
marble, recumbent life-sized effigies. Various minor monu- 
ments of interest. To the Church of Notre Dame (next 
or equal in importance to the Cathedral, which we did 
not visit) ; a noble massive building with much construc- 
tional detail, little ornament, brick exterior. The Virgin 
and Child deemed to be a Michelangelo very noble. A 
considerable number of superior pictures, particularly a 
Mater Dolorosa by Jean Mostaert ; being a single figure 
seated in the centre, with smaller (I think three each side) 
side-pictures of Passion incidents. This is one of the finest 
works extant of the old Flemish school ; the Virgin remark- 
ably dignified and becoming, without want of the character- 
istic individuality of the school. The copper - gilt and 
enamelled and black - marble monuments to Charles le 
Temeraire and his Duchess are perhaps unique for 
splendour, and in all respects works of singular excellence. 
The Town Hall (of which we only saw the outside, part 
of it used as a meat - market) has a tower (especially) of 
great power ; and altogether the Gothic style in Bruges is 
of great vigour and pre-eminent scale. — Left for Calais, and 
were detained some three and a half hours at Lille, 
where we visited the theatre, a noticeably large and hand- 
some one. Opera so-so — farce very amusing, and well 
acted also, but we could not wait to the end ; slept at 
Hotel Dessin, Calais. 

* Now identified as the work of Gerard David. 



J. A. FROUDE, 1863 39 

Friday^ 1 1. — Returned to London ; a very fine day, and 
good passage * of less than two hours. 



31. — J. A. Froude to William Rossettl 

[This letter admits us a little into an Editor's back- 
office. My friend Thomas Woolner had published his 
poetic volume named My Beautiful Lady, and he invited 
me to write a review of it, in case Mr Froude, as Editor 
of Eraser's Magazine, would give the article admission. 
Mr Froude assented, and so did I — being much attached 
to Woolner, and unwilling to refuse him this small service. 
My real critical opinion of the poem, however, was that it 
contained, along with much of more than common merit, 
a good deal that must be called defective ; and, as a critic 
owes something to his Editor and his public as well as to 
the person reviewed, I wrote in private to Mr Froude, to 
say that, if he were to invite me to write the notice 
(which he had not as yet actually done), I should limit 
myself to praising those things which I conscientiously 
considered praiseworthy — leaving unwritten those strictures 
which I equally deemed correct, but which would have 
been not at all pleasing to my friend. I left it to Mr 
Froude to say whether under these conditions I should be 
the right man to whom to consign the book. The follow- 
ing is Froude's answer. In the event, Carlyle did certainly 
not write anything about the poem in Frasers Magazine, 
nor do I remember that any one did.] 

6 Clifton Place. 
29 October 1863. 

My dear Rossetti, — I cannot complain of your unwill- 
ingness, whatever the embarrassment which it may occasion 

* A good sea-passage was of importance to my Brother. He was 
liable to severe sea-sickness, and I have no doubt that this was one 
of the reasons why, throughout his Hfe, he showed so little alacrity 
for foreign travel. 



40 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

me; for the ground of it is the same which made me 
hesitate to write the review myself I saw the poem 
in MS. ; and, although there could not but be much that 
was good in anything that Woolner did, it seemed to me 
to be less than the best ; and, when I heard that it was 
to be published, I felt the regret which I always feel when 
a man who is supremely excellent in any one department 
persists in thrusting himself before the world in another 
where he comparatively fails. I don't know what to do. 
My hope had been to find some one who saw only the 
merits, and could praise conscientiously and without 
reserve ; and, from what he said to me, I trusted that it 
might have been done by you. But you are too clear- 
sighted, and so I fear every one will be whose opinion 
Woolner would value. It is no discredit to a painter if he 
is not a first-rate musician ; but it is a discredit to him 
if he gives a concert and invites the world to come and 
listen to him. He may play moderately well — well enough 
to be a delight to himself — but he ought to be able to 
take the measure of his own powers. The Beautiful Lady 
is not poetry at all, but only very admirable manufacture. 
I shall try to persuade Carlyle to write a page or two. 
He could tell the truth without giving offence, and he 
might do it for Woolner's sake. — Most truly yours, 

J. A. Froude. 



32. — Anne Gilchrist to William Rossettl 

[I had attended at Christie's the view-day of a forth- 
coming sale, the Blamire sale, and there I saw some Blake 
items of very superior interest. Having written to Mrs 
Gilchrist on the subject, I received the following reply. 
In speaking of my " annotations to the Blake," Mrs 
Gilchrist referred to certain pencillings I had made in my 
copy of Gilchrist's Life of Blake, which was by this time 
already published.] 



ANNE GILCHRIST, 1863 41 

Brookbank. 
6 Nove77iber 1863. 

My dear Mr Rossetti,— ... So the MS. life of Blake 
by Tatham, so long fruitlessly searched for by my dear 
Husband, has come to light at last ! Both Mr Palmer and 
Tatham himself put my Husband on a wrong scent by 
being positive it was in the hands of Sir Robert Peel — to 
whom, of course, both he and I applied in vain. . . . No 
doubt the Ancient of Days with Tatham's cipher on it is 
the identical copy Blake worked upon on his death-bed, 
and threw from him in triumph, as described in the Life — 
a most peculiarly interesting thing, therefore, quite apart 
from its artistic merits. I suppose the death-bed sketch of 
Mrs Blake which Tatham once possessed is not among 
the items of this sale? No doubt I had best write to 
Christie after the sale for a list of the purchasers of the 
Blakes. . . . 

A thousand thanks beforehand for a sight of your 
annotations to the Blake. 

I know you will be pleased to hear that Mr Carlyle has 
written me a very cordial letter about the book — awarding 
it high commendation indeed ; a letter altogether that 
made golden to me the day on which I received it. . . . 
— Yours very truly, 

A. Gilchrist. 

I am sure you are right in your conjecture about the 
portrait being Richmond's — remember Mr Palmer specify- 
ing this in describing the book. 



33. — Anne Gilchrist to William Rossetti. 

[I do not distinctly recollect about my Brother's having 
destroyed a "residuum" of Blake MSS. etc. It is certainly 
a pity that he included in the holocaust a transcript from 
a leading passage in Blake's FrencJi Revolution, a book so 



42 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

rare that some Blake experts of recent years have come to 
the conclusion that it was never printed at all. The "long 
thing" by Blake, which Mrs Gilchrist regarded as " pure rub- 
bish," was a prose narrative of a domestic, and also fantastic, 
sort, clearly intended by its author to count as humouristic 
or funny, and somewhat in the Shandean vein. I read 
this performance, and heartily confirmed Mrs Gilchrist in 
the conviction of its being rubbish ; yet I was startled to 
learn soon afterwards that, on receiving my letter, she had 
burned the MS. The thing was stupid, but it was Blake's, 
and a curiosity.] 

Brookbank. 
1 8 November 1863. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — I have read through the annota- 
tions with eager interest, and with proportionate gratitude 
to yourself I shall copy them all on to a set of clean 
proofs I have by me. . , . 

I hear the Jerusalem sold for £^0, and the Phillips 
Portrait for £,\6, but have not yet learned the names of 
the purchasers ; will let you know them if I succeed in 
doing so. 

I send by this post Tiriel, and The French Revolution, 
minus, I am grieved to say, the best passage in it, which 
must have been among the residuum your brother destroyed. 
I thought I had (and still believe I have, though I cannot 
after a long hunt find it) a copy of this piece about the 
prisoners in the Bastille, in Mr Palmer's handwriting. 
Perhaps I shall light upon it when I am not looking for it, 
as sometimes perversely happens. I have also put up the 
only remaining Blake items which I do not think you have 
seen : a few scraps in autograph, a copy of the Laocoon, and 
a long thing which I really believe even Mr Swinburne 
will pronounce pure rubbish ; but I knew he would like to 
judge of this point for himself . . . — Yours very truly, 

A. G. 



ANNE GILCHRIST, 1863 43 



34. — Anne Gilchrist to William Rossetti. 

Brookbank. 
23 Nove7ttber 1863. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — I had a letter this morning from 
a cousin of mine who is acquainted with Mr Maitland of 
Stansted Hall, announcing that the latter had just bought a 
magnificent copy of Blake's Jerusalem with a MS. Life, etc. 
— in fact, tJie 'QldiVnlre Jerusalem with Tatham's memoir. . . . 
My cousin says the portrait of M7's Blake has Richmond's 
signature. . . . 

I have seen both Mr Palgrave's reviews, and of course 
like them much ; they are very genial. . . . 

I have a friend staying with me, some of whose relatives 
were intimate with John Varley, and had their nativities 
cast by him, which continue down to the present year to 
come astoundingly true ! 

With kindest remembrances to Miss Rossetti, — Yours 
very truly, 

Annie Gilchrist. 



35. — Anne Gilchrist to William Rossettl 

Brookbank. 
25 November 1863. 

Dear Mr Rossetti, — Now that I have the work before 
me in its present beautiful form, I feel with fresh emphasis 
the magnitude and raj-e quality of your own and your 
Brother's services to it — pious services truly, for which, I 
believe, the dead as well as the living bless you both. 

I have had a very brief note from Mr Linnell to the 
effect that, if (as he thinks probable) a second edition is 
called for, he will have a few suggestions to make concern- 
ing it. 



44 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

I have also had a note full of feeling and kindness 
from Mr Browning. . . . — Yours very truly, 

Anne Gilchrist. 



36.— Philip Hamerton to William Rossettl 

[I suppose that Mr Hamerton's article is traceable in 
the Revue des Deux Morides : do not remember having 
ever read it. The " exhibition " of which he speaks was a 
collection of his landscapes in a house in Piccadilly : it 
went on for some little while. A volume of his in prose 
and verse used to be procurable there — T/ie Isles of Loch 
Awe,] 

Rue du Palais 4, Sens, Yonne, France. 
15 Ja7iiiary 1864. 

My dear Sir, — I had the honour of a short corre- 
spondence with your Brother Mr Dante Rossetti, about 
the artistic opinions of the Praeraphaelites, relatively to an 
article I had in contemplation for the Revue des Deux 
Mondes. I had laid the article aside for some time in hopes 
of an answer from Mr Holman-Hunt ; but, as I received a 
letter to-day reminding me of my promise to write the 
article, I am going to do so immediately, without waiting 
for Hunt's reply. . . , 

My exhibition is in a shabby way, but it is intended to 
be permanent if I can make it pay directly or indirectly. 
I am doomed never to live in London, and I require a 
room where my things may be accessible. 

By the by, I have to thank you for the generous and 
kind way you spoke of me in Maciiiillan and the Fine Arts 
Quarterly Revieiv. I fully feel and admit all that was 
^///favourable in your criticisms. Considering that I enjoy 
colour in Nature, I have had immense difficulty with it, 
but find myself gradually gaining in facility, though not 
so fast as I wish. I have had long periods of discourage- 



PHILIP HAMERTON, 1864 45 

ment when I have done nothing (except look at Nature, 
and take pencil memoranda), but am getting over these 
and working more regularly. I am painting some smaller 
pictures, which will probably be better than those you saw, 
though my opinion of my own work is really very humble 
indeed. 

In my article in the Revue des Deux Mondes I should 
wish to give your Brother the place which is due to him ; 
and to that end should be glad to name a few of his 
principal works, and say who bought them ; and, if the 
prices of any have been large, it would be well to mention 
them, because I wish to give continental readers a means 
of judging of the position the Praeraphaelite leaders have 
taken, and there is no criterion of this so good as the 
prices their works fetch. . . . These enquiries are dictated 
chiefly by a feeling of respect for your Brother's genius, 
founded, it is true, on the study of few of his works, and 
those not important ones — yet nevertheless very sincere. 
— I remain, my dear Sir, very truly yours, 

P. G. Haaierton. 



37. — Philip Hamerton to William Rossettl 

Tain, Drome. 
idf January 1864. 

My dear Sir, — It is very good of you to have given me 
so long and detailed a reply. . . . Without attempting to 
put myself forward in any way as the advocate or counsel 
of the sect or body of painters called Prasraphaelites, I find 
I must speak of them, and desire to avoid saying anything 
which is not true, and at the same time not to omit anything 
of real importance concerning them. My article will be called 
Theories Artistiques en Angleterre, and it is highly desirable 
that the praeraphaelite theory should be fairly and truly 
stated. To arrive at this I have tried to get at the opinions 
of the Prseraphaelites concerning other artists, especially 



46 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

great dead ones. Millais, your Brother, Brett, and Woolner, 
have given me much valuable information ; but I cannot get 
at H. Hunt's views, and so must omit him, or only allude 
to him, which is to be regretted. Ruskin, I imagine, is not 
to be taken as a precise representative of praeraphaelite 
thought. Probably your own published criticisms express 
general praeraphaelite views more accurately. I think the 
Praeraphaelites were generally rather imprudent in not 
publishing some authentic statement of their views, as all 
sorts of wild notions are ascribed to them by their enemies 
in England, and accepted on the Continent as accurately 
theirs. . . . 

What you said of me (book and all) I felt to be true, 
even the bit about the heavy pound of feathers. . . . Hence- 
forth I mean to quit the feather-trade. — I remain, dear Sir, 
very truly yours, 

P. G. Hamerton. 



38. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[The exaggerated praise which Rossetti bestows upon 
the small picture which he had bought, Barnet Market-Place, 
is surprising enough. Both he and Brown had a rather 
curious fondness for the " old-fashioned," whether in actual 
buildings or in paintings ; and, though of course his expres- 
sions in this letter are intentionally overdone, he really had 
a great liking for the little picture in question. I could not 
myself quite share his fervour for it, but it was a solid 
and approvable piece of work by some capable painter. 
In the sale of his effects in July 1882 it figured as lot 315, 
An English Country Town about 1810, and was bought by 
Mr Enson for 1 1 guineas. The water-colours by Brown, 
purchased by Gambart, may, I think, have been a version 
of the Elijah and the Widoiu's Son, and the little girl's head 
named Old Toothless. Of the two water-colours by Rossetti 
himself, the one bought by Mr Tong appears to have been 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1864 47 

a replica from the Lady LilWi ; I do not identify the other. 
The proposed agreement with Gambart did not take effect ; 
at any rate, my Brother never worked for that gentleman on 
the scale of one water-colour per fortnight for two years 
continuously. The phrase " Tebbs bought the Marshalls " 
means that Mr H. Virtue Tebbs had bought certain paint- 
ings by Mr P. P. Marshall (of the Morris firm), who, 
though not a professional painter, was an amateur of 
marked ability.] 

i6 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
28 March 1864. 

My dear Brown, — ... I have just bought for £2 a 
most god-like picture of The Old Swan Iiiu and Market- 
place at Barnet — the chef-d'ceiivre of the British school — I 
should think by Morland in his best time. But really it is 
a work which would ravish your inner soul ; only it has 
got some holes knocked in it, so I must get it lined at 
once. 

I am very glad Gambart has got your drawings, as he 
will push your prices up like mad. I think I told you that 
I heard, by a side-way, of one I sold him for ^^50 being sold 
again to Mr Tong of Manchester for 100 guineas. The 
other day I was told that one which I sold for the same 
price to Vokins was sold by him for 100 to a dealer in New- 
castle, and by him sold again for 120. 

I have not yet signed that agreement with Gambart ; 
and am really thinking I must not do it at less than 50 
guineas a drawing, as one or two of those I have done from 
Nature lately I find just as troublesome as other work, and 
I dare say he sells all I do at much the same rates as those 
I have heard of I proposed to do him the drawings at 
40 guineas each, one a fortnight for two years, which was all 
my own proposal ; but have not yet had to renew the 
subject, the things I have done since being on a previous 
engagement at 50 guineas each. I want your advice in the 
matter. . . . 

I was delighted to hear that Tebbs bought the Marshalls. 



48 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

He and I were so absorbed in blue china, the night he 
came here, that he was just the only visitor to whom I had 
forgotten to show them. — Yours affectionately, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 



39. — Philip Hamerton to William Rossettl 

Rue du Palais 4, Sens, Yonne. 
10 April 1864. 

My dear Sir, — ... I am just now at work on my 
paper for the Revue dcs Deux Mondes ; so your letter is 
in nice time for my purpose, after all. The information 
you give me confirms my previous notions about Prae- 
raphaelitism. I have made a little article for the Fine 
Arts Quarterly called the Reaction from Prceraphaelitism, 
which may interest you. My position with regard to Prae- 
raphaelitism is one of sympathy and goodwill, but the 
goodwill of an outsider. The practical reason is that 
none but the best praeraphaelite work seems to me endur- 
able, whereas second - rate free painting may still be 
tolerable ; and also that I am irresistibly attracted to 
effects, which can only be rendered conventionally, not 
imitatively. But, setting myself out of the question, I 
should oppose (as a matter of duty) the authoritative 
establishment of praeraphaelite principles (or any other 
principles) if there were any chance of their becoming 
tyrannical, and repressive of forms of genius for which they 
might be unsuited. Hence, I should warmly support Prai- 
raphaelitism while persecuted, and warmly oppose it if it 
became tyrannical. This is why I rejoice in the success of 
individual Praeraphaelites, and am nevertheless happy to 
see that the movement has failed to make itself more 
than beneficially influential ; and this is also the reason 
why you will find me apparently more friendly to Prae- 
raphaelitism in the French periodical than in the English 
one. 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1864 49 

I have just finished two big pictures which are some- 
what better than what you have seen of mine, and will be 
at 196 Piccadilly by the ist of May, I hope. But I am 
going to change my policy. I have aimed too high, and 
attempted subjects beyond my present capacity. For the 
next three years I am going to do nothing but small 
pictures, rapidly executed from Nature, never retouched or 
corrected. By means of this straightforward work I hope 
to acquire facility, of which at present I have none. There 
is some colour in these new pictures, and much local truth 
of character ; but the handling is so miserably unskilful 
that I feel tempted to burn them. This bit of egotism is 
quite sincere. The subjects of the pictures are Sens from 
the Vineyards and The River Yonne, both in full autumnal 
colour with evening light. The subjects are glorious, but 
very difficult. . . . — Very truly yours, 

P. G. Hamerton. 



40.— Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[This paean over " pots " — i.e., blue oriental china — 
marks the tone of mind which characterized my Brother as 
a collector of articles of virtu for two or three years.] 

16 Cheyne Walk. 
[? 1864.] 

My dear Brown, — . . . My Pots now baffle description 
altogether, while the imagination which could remotely 
conceive them would deserve a tercentenary celebration. 
Come and see them. Let me know what day to expect 
you, and bring Emma and Lucy to dinner. — Affectionately 
yours, 

D. G. Rossetti. 



D 



50 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



41. — Christina Rossetti to Dante Rossetti. 

[Christina's volume Goblin Market etc. came out in 
1862. It would appear that now, in 1864, Dante Rossetti 
was urging his Sister to prepare a new volume. This she 
soon proceeded to do, but the result, the Pi'incc's Progress 
volume, did not actually appear until 1866. By "Mac" is 
meant the publisher Macmillan.] 

Albany Street. 
7 May 1864. 

My dear Gabriel, — Don't think me a perfect weathercock. 
But why rush before the public with an immature volume? 
I really think of not communicating at all with Mac at 
present ; but waiting the requisite number of months (or 
years as the case may be) until I have a sufficiency of quality 
as well as quantity. Is not this after all my best plan ? If 
meanwhile my things become remains^ that need be no bug- 
bear to scare me into premature publicity. Not that the 
brotherly trouble you have already taken need be lost, as 
your work will of course avail when (and if) the day of 
publication comes. . . . — Your grateful affectionate bore, 

C. G. R. 



42. — Dante Rossetti — " The Seed of David." 

[This picture, the Llandaff Triptych, was finished towards 
June 1864. The following note of its subject and treatment 
was written by Rossetti, and may, I presume, have been sent 
to the authorities of Llandaff Cathedral.] 

\J. June 1864.] 

This picture shows Christ sprung from high and low, as 
united in the person of David who was both Shepherd and 



W. J. STILLMAN, 1864 51 

King, and worshipped by high and low (by King and 
Shepherd) at his birth. 

The centrepiece is not a Hteral reading of the event of 
the Nativity, but rather a condensed symbol of it. An Angel 
has just entered the stable where Christ is newly born, and 
leads by the hand a King and a Shepherd, who are bowing 
themselves before the manger on which the Virgin Mother 
kneels, holding the infant Saviour. The Shepherd kisses the 
hand, and the King the foot, of Christ, to denote the superi- 
ority of lowliness to greatness in his sight ; while the one 
lays a crook, the other a crown, at his feet. An Angel kneels 
behind the Virgin with both arms about her, supporting her ; 
and other Angels look in through the openings round the 
stable, or play on musical instruments in the loft above. 
The two side-figures represent David, one as Shepherd, 
the other as King. In the first he is a youth, and advances 
fearlessly but cautiously, sling in hand, to take aim at Goliath, 
while the Israelite troops watch the issue of the combat from 
behind an entrenchment. In the second, he is a man of 
mature years, still armed from battle, and composing on his 
harp a psalm in thanksgiving for victory. 



43. — W. J. Stillman to William Rossetti. 

[Mr Stillman, when he wrote this letter, was United 
States Consul to the Papal Government in Rome]. 

U.S. Consulate, Rome. 
\o June 1864. 

My dear Rossetti, — ... I have no faith in any letter 
going straight that bears the family-name you hail by on its 
outer walls ; so this I send out of the Roman States to be 
posted. Our kind and paternal police have taken a special 
care of the things that pertain to me ; for the instinct of the 
creatures is so keen that I don't need to write an allocution 
to tell them that I detest their slimy ways and wicked deeds. 



52 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

In fact intercourse is almost suspended between me and the 
Government. . . . Things are in a state here which would 
disgrace Timbuctoo. We are in danger every day of being 
robbed or murdered by our own doors, unless we happen to 
carry revolvers. My studio has been robbed, and twice 
robbers have failed in attempts on my rooms. An acquaint- 
ance of mine arrested a fellow who had stabbed his landlady 
(acquaintance's) ; and, calling two policemen to take him into 
custody, they refused, saying that it was piccola cosa* and the 
ruffian walked undisturbed away. Of all the murders com- 
mitted this winter, not one has been traced out ; but, if a 
heavy-hearted Roman whispers in his sleep Roma o morte, 
some one is pretty sure to be sharp enough to hear it, and for 
him the gendarmes have noses as sharp as their fears. The 
oppression, the gloom and despondency, of this place, have 
become intolerable to me : I have asked to be transferred to 
some other consulate, and, if not, I shall resign this winter. 
Almost every one I know who is true is either suspected or 
has been arrested or under- surveillance ; and the place is as 
gloomy as a churchyard — which indeed it is, and the living 
are buried in it. A lethargy like a catalepsy, all feeling but 
no power, rests on the place ; and I love liberty too well to 
dance by the sound of even Italian chains, or not to be 
paralysed in part by its paralysis. 

Between this and the wail of my own land, I am getting 
the iron driven pretty deep into me. ... It seems at times 
as if I never could forgive England for the heartless gibes she 
has thrown to us who loved her so well, and honoured her 
even in our arrogance. It was like the jests and sneers 
careless boys might fling at the wailing of a woman in labour. 
So we, in the throes almost of death — but we believe in those 
of birth, the bringing to-day the hitherto unknown one, human 
liberty, unsullied by bar sinister or stain of oppression — have 
taken in anger (almost overpowering our sorrows) the insults 
and stabs of the kindred nation for whose defence from Gallic 
oppression hundreds of thousands of us, only a few years 
before, were willing to take arms. Never mind, we've got the 
* A triflingr affair. 



W. J. STILLMAN, 1864 53 

force of life in us yet, and we all believe that the nation will 
live through the worst of the trials that may be prepared for 
us. They don't kill empires in their youth. There is an 
everlasting vitality in a nation called to empire which no 
outside power can eradicate : only the corruption that 
dissolves from within can disintegrate the mass. If the 
world believes that the success of the United States of 
America depends on the success of Grant's movements 
against Richmond, the world is as much mistaken as it 
generally is when it judges new things by old standards. 
Europe misjudges the war altogether. It is not a war to be 
finished by a Solferino or a Waterloo — it is nothing more or 
less than a war of extermination, to that point that either one 
or the other of the combatants has no more an army to put 
in the field. We so understand and accept it ; and, if in 
losing our brave men by thousands we destroy as many of 
the insurgents, we accept it as victory, for we have men still 
to lose and they have not. TJiey put the condition of sub- 
mission as extermination — we accept it — and so the war will 
be fought through. Europe was amazed at the power of that 
western democracy ; the power to be seen will leave the past 
in insignificance ; and Europe will see that a people can be 
just and generous and honest under greater provocations to 
the contrary than the world ever yet saw ; and, when it has 
conquered its worst enemy, go on to conquer itself Of 
course, I am Utopian, Americans generally are ; but we 
believe in our Utopia, and are willing to sacrifice something 
for it. But still we are human and a nation of individuals, 
not a government and its people. Let England remember 
that. . . . 

Goblin Market, etc., I read with true pleasure : right 
woman's heart is in it, and healthy brain, and of my way of 
feeling in matter of faith. . . . — Yours sincerely, 

W. J. Stillman. 



54 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



44. — William Rossetti — Diary, 1864. 

Tuesday, 14 Jtme. — Left London by Newhaven and 
Dieppe. . . . Reached Paris about 1 1 P.M., and went to 
Hotel de Choiseul, Rue St Honore, where I had been 
with Boyce for the Delacroix sale. . . . 

Thursday, 16. — Went to the Hotel de Ville to see the 
Delacroix, and saw everything else instead — the Delacroix 
being in a room wherein some big thing from the Inter- 
national Exhibition has been placed, blocking it up. . , . 
To St Sulpice, to see the Delacroix there ; frescoes of 
Heliodorus, d,x\d Jacob wrestling zuith the Angel, with Michael 
and Satan in the ceiling. The last appears to me very 
unsatisfactory, and the others hardly what they should be, 
though the Heliodoms especially is a work of great ability. 
It seems to me damaged by too great a number of different 
full-tinted colours, as in the draperies. ... In the evening, 
to the Theatre Dejazet (my first visit there). None of the 
Dejazets acted, and the pieces were, on the whole, rather 
stupid. Here for the first time I saw Pepper's ghost trick. 
It strikes me as rather curious that pieces of broad fun in 
Paris seem just now to depend very little on female interest 
or acting. Such is the case with the Cagnotte at the Palais 
Royal, which has had a great run, continuing till now 
ever since I was in Paris in February. So also in the 
Theatre Dejazet, though a somewhat decollete house. Three 
pieces to-night were all dependent on male acting and 
farce, and even three dancing-interludes all for male 
dancing. . . . 

Friday, I7. — To the Bibliotheque of the Corps Legislatif, 
to see the Delacroix. Their general impression is hardly 
up to the mark — the whole thing seeming to lack weight, 
and peculiarity of decorative idea. A great deal however 
is very fine, and finer the more one looks at it ; and 
the colour very agreeable and well understood, though it 
seems to have little of the monumental quality. Education 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1864 55 

of Achilles, Hesiod and the Pythoness, Herodotus and the 
Magi, three of the best. . . . To the Louvre, to have a 
dehberate look at the two new saloons of French painting, 
in which there is a good deal to examine and approve. 
De Troy able ; Chardin a very clever still-life man. David 
has been absurdly depreciated of late. His portrait here 
of a lady (Madame Recamier) reclined on a couch is 
second to few works of the kind ; not to speak of the great 
merits of his classic and historic works, . . , 

Saturday, i8. — Went to Dessoye's, the Japanese shop in 
the Rue de Rivoli, and bought books etc. to the amount 
of 40 francs. They are cheaper here than in the Rue 
Lepelletier. There is to be a new consignment in October, 
especially of books of birds and flowers. . . . Madame 
Dessoye told me some particulars about Japanese matters. 
A figure with a robe figured with leaves of a tree is the 
Tycoon (pronounced with the English " i "). The type of 
face constantly given to women is a mere convention. The 
real type is snub-nosed ; but the Japanese, as they admire 
long drooping noses, improvise them for the purpose. The 
Japanese are much pleased with European work, such as 
the cuts in the Illustrated London News. Boyce's teapot 
is a marriage-teapot, used on those occasions only — so the 
Japanese Ambassadors informed Madame Dessoye. . . . 

Tuesday, 21. — Reached Milan soon after 8 A.M. . . . To 
the Teatro della Canobbiana, an operatic theatre, quite a 
large and handsome one (the Scala is shut). The per- 
formances were Pacini's Saffo, which seems to me character- 
less enough music ; and a ballet of Shakespear, while 
drunk, being spirited away by Queen Elizabeth, to witness 
a fairyism which suggests to him the Midsummer Night's 
Dream. These two illustrious personages are at least 
excused from cutting capers. The absurdity of the thing 
amusing, and all well done of its kind. There is an 
immense ballet-establishment at this theatre — whole relays 
of new figurantes coming on. . . . 

Thursday, 23. — Left Milan at 6.20 for Venice. , . . 
Saturday, 25. — In my stroll along the Schiavoni I was 



56 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

rather surprised to notice that common meclaHion-brooches 
of Victor Emanuel and Garibaldi are for sale al fresco with- 
out the least concealment, . . , 

Sunday, 26. — . . . To the Scuola di San Rocco. The 
wooden carved portrait of Tintoret holds a scroll inscribed 
(as spoken by Tintoret) to the effect that painting is more 
difficult than sculpture, and superior, as producing its 
effect by less literal means. The Custode says this is 
really a statement by Tintoret, but query. In 1848 or 9 
several Austrian cannon-shot, bombs, etc., came into the 
Scuola, and the places where some fell are marked by circles 
in the flooring. . . . 

Monday, 27. — . . . The boatman says the greatest 
Venetian festa now is the Redentore, 27 (?) July ; when a 
bridge of boats is made from the Giudecca (wherein stands 
the Redentore church) to the Riva delle Zattere, and another 
across the Grand Canal, so that the poorest people can 
cross over without payment. The festa of St Mark is dis- 
countenanced by the Austrians, as being likely to keep up 
dangerous reminiscences. . . . 

Wednesday, 29. — . . . Went to the principal curiosity- 
shops and collections. At Rietti's bought a pewter plate 
{Pharaoh's Dream) 6 francs, and an old iron of a lock repre- 
senting a dragon, 14. At Bianchi's, an old Venetian tortoise- 
shell fan with central opera-glass (belonged to a Dogaressa, 
said the shopman). At Arrichetti's an old moulded-leather 
box, 20 ; and a pewter plate, of rich heraldic design but in 
very bad condition, 18. All these prices and the others 
asked appear to me high ; but the shop-keepers stuck out 
against taking any less, and these are hardly reduced from 
the original demand. The three last purchases are said to 
be rarities ; and I have reason to think this is probably the 
case with at least the fan, as Arrichetti told me so of a 
similar one he had, knowing that I had already got mine. . . . 
After dinner again to the Teatro Malibran, where there is a 
new and apparently somewhat popular piece. La Faniiglia del 
Condannato, intended to set forth the grievance of maintain- 
ing the marriage-bond in the case of a man condemned to 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 18G4 57 

perpetual imprisonment. . . . Children come into most of 
the Italian plays I have seen, and act certainly with great ease 
and intelligence, very different from the stiff-elbowed and 
squeaky-voiced style of English stage-children. 

Sunday^ 3 Jtdy. — After dinner revisited the Malibran 
Theatre, where a very stupid piece about the Monks of St 
Bernard. The house was comparatively {i.e., perhaps half) 
full. It seems, as the man in charge of the belfry told me, 
that the Patriotic Committee discountenance theatre-going, 
as being unsuited to the mournful condition of the country, 
and because the Austrians go. This accounts for the empti- 
ness, shutting up of the Fenice, etc. Everybody tells me 
that things get worse and worse in Venice ; trade more 
stagnant, emigration increasing. It seems to me to be a 
little more down-in-the-mouth than when I was here two 
years ago, and the belfry-man says it is very decidedly so. 

Monday, 4. — Left Venice in the morning, and stopped 
the better part of the day in Vicenza. . . . To the Madonna 
di Monte Berico, from which and about it one gets noble 
views of Vicenza, and the country with the Tyrolese Alps. 
... In the Church is a fine Pieta by B. Montagna, and in 
the refectory the great Veronese, La Cena di San Gregorio, 
containing evidently several portraits (Veronese and his son 
said to be among them). The incident is that, the Pope 
entertaining a number of pilgrims, Christ came and dined 
among them, and (it appears to me) Peter also, though the 
custode did not admit this. This picture was wantonly 
hacked to pieces by the Austrian soldiers, but has been most 
successfully pieced together, and I think rather over-cleaned, 
but the custode says not retouched at all. ... It is an 
admirable specimen. . . , On to Verona. . . . 

Wednesday, 6. — My time at Verona has been passed in 
company with a very nice young fellow, a son of Smith 
O'Brien (who, I now learn, is very lately dead), much inter- 
ested in matters of art, and of considerable taste and dis- 
crimination. Name, Lucius ; address, 40 Trinity College, 
Dublin, or at Limerick. — Went to San Zenone, which is a 
rnost splendid place for antiquity and artistic interest ; the 



58 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

bronze gates, of tenth to eleventh century or so, incompar- 
able in their way, and a number of very interesting early 
frescoes lately recovered from whitewash, besides Lombardic 
capitals etc. etc. The custode,* a most intelligent young 
man, who takes the most genuine interest in his Church, 
remembers Ruskin well, and seems to have been imbued 
with some of his love for the old, hatred of restorations, 
etc. . . . 

Thursday, 7. — Left Verona in the middle of the day for 
Bergamo. . . . 

Friday, 8. — Colleoni Chapel, many fine details ; tomb of 
his daughter Medea particularly sweet. ... A most singu- 
larly cleverly executed series of bas-reliefs outside along the 
lower line of the windows:—!. Hercules and Antaeus. 2. 
Hercules kilUng lion. Both splendid. 3. Creation of Adam. 
4. Creation of Eve. 5. Temptation — the serpent is a draped 
female figure with serpent's tail and bat's wings — stands 
upright on stem of tree. 6. Expulsion — God acts as expel- 
ling angel wielding sword. 7. Labour of Adam and Eve — 
very exquisite. 8. Sacrifice of Cain and Abel — Cain brings 
a whole palm-tree. 9. Murder of Abel — most admirable. 
10. Lamech killing Cain. 11. Lamech killing his boy, some 
eight years old ; seems beating him to death with bow as 
with a whip. 12. Sacrifice of Isaac. 13. Hercules and 
hydra. 14. Hercules and bull — splendid. One of the most 
remarkable series of reliefs in Italy, intensely cinquecento, 
or late quattrocento. 

Monday, 11. — Zurich. . . . The Swiss are probably a 
meritorious, but to me not an attractive people, having a sort 
of hard boisterous good-fellowship whose contact is peculiarly 
unalluring to me. Screeching, shouting, singing, horn-play- 
ing, back-clapping, beerglass-clinking, are the order of the 
day. Sometimes one meets with positive rudeness, but more 
generally with readiness to oblige, but not in an attractive 
manner. The people are very inquisitive also in a free-and- 
easy way. The other day, in the Splugen journey, the 
first thing a Switzer did to myself and two other fellow- 

■^ The same custode was still there when I last visited Verona, 1899. 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1864 59 

travellers, one female, was to ask us all round what country 
we belonged to. To-day a man with a large leather shoulder- 
bag had no sooner taken his seat in the railway-carriage (2nd 
class) than his vis-a-vis asked him, '' Etes^vous soldat ?" And 
other instances have presented themselves to me. There is 
some satisfaction, however, in the seeming freedom from 
class-distinctions, and readiness to take people simply on 
their own basis. Reached Bale about 5 P.M. . . . 

Tuesday, 12. — . . . Left Bale at 9 A.M., and travelled 
all day to Paris. . . . 

Wednesday, 13. — . . . Found a new Japanese shop in 
Rue Vivienne, where I bought a few things. A number of 
books, but none first-rate, save such as I possessed already. 
The bad effects of European intercourse are unmistakably 
visible in such books now, more especially in the colouring, 
which is worse than worthless. — To the Societe d'Acclima- 
tation. ... I am glad to find a wombat among the acclima- 
tizing animals — a young (I think the common) one, not at 
present blind. A Chinese dog a jambes courtes shows that 
the beasts of that genus which one sees in Chinese art are 
truer than might be supposed — something of the body of a 
Skye terrier to the head of a pug. There is another very 
hideous and mangy-looking subject called chien chinois nil. 
Also a full-grown broad-fronted wombat seems in very good 
condition. . . . 

Thursday, 14. — Travelled back to London by the Dieppe 
and Newhaven route. A fine day. 



45. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
19 July [1864]. 

My dear Brown, — Vokins has never been near me 
again ; rather to my surprise, as I know he did well with 
that drawing of mine. But I suppose he considered his 



60 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

bacon had been saved by a special mercy of Providence, 
not to be tempted again lest it should end in the cooking 
of his goose. However, I would write to him, on my own 
account, to come, and then sound him on yours ; only I 
can't let Gambart have anything just now, who bears my 
cutting him well enough as yet, but might be exasperated 
were Vokins to step in. Could I not write to Vokins 
something to the effect that you have recently been 
working up some water-colours, original sketches for some 
of your pictures, etc., and, having a private circle of 
purchasers less adapted for such works than the general 
market, would like to see him about them ? What say 
you? 

My big jobs have been hanging fire ever since, though 
both show good signs of life, and one I suppose is sure to 
turn out something better than another phial in the museum 
of artistic foetuses. When this is accomplished — before long, 
I still suppose — I must press you to let me be of any 
momentary use I can, and may moreover, if you like, be 
then easily able to write to this new quarter about the 
works you have at disposal. . . . — Yours ever, 

D. G. R. 



46. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown, 

[The term "the demon Dunlop " was already, at this 
early stage of affairs, my brother's name for Mr Walter 
Dunlop of Bingley ; because (as appears from the next 
ensuing letter, and from the letter to Mr Aldam Heaton, 
No. 103) Mr Dunlop paid no sort of attention to the 
business -letters addressed to him with regard to the 
commission he had offered. " My Venus " was the rather 
large oil-picture named Venus Veriicordia.'] 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1864 61 

i6 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
[ii August 1864.] 

My dear Brown, — I also have heard from Heaton, and 
really feel almost guilty of the stupidity of all these 
people, in having advised you to send among them. The 
demon Dunlop certainly ought not to have been allowed 
to have the drawings within range of his horns and tail, 
and I am surprised at Heaton's allowing it. ... I fear, 
after what Gambart has just hauled in there (^^5000 I was 
told), every one must be cleaned out and sheepish. I fear 
I'm a poor sort of muff myself for having led you among 
such a lot, particularly with my own experience of some 
of them, but that has been chiefly since. . . , 

I have lost infinite time looking for honeysuckles for 
my Venus, but the picture is going to be a stunner now, 
and goes on fast. . . . — Yours, 

D. G. R. 

P. 5.— Burn. 



47.— Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
[12 August 1864.] 

My dear Brown, — ... As for the big commissions, I 
begin to think it will prove all moonshine. It seems 
impossible to get a word from Dunlop now — not to speak 
of a cheque ; and I am sick of the whole affair, and shall 
trouble my head no more with it. . . , 

I have been worried almost out of my life looking for 
honeysuckles to paint from — have lost a whole week, and 
pounds on pounds, about it. As soon as I set about doing 
my best, I get bankrupt at once. The only thing is to 
stick to the water-colours and earn whereby to live. — Yours 
ever, 

D. G. R. 



62 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



48. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[Mr Trist was a Wine-merchant at Brighton, who bought 
one or two works from Rossetti, and more from Brown. 
His " picture " may, I suppose, have been King Rene's 
Hojieynioon. A nimbus was not suppHed to the head of 
Venus Verticordia — the oil-picture.] 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
[23 August 1864.] 

My dear Brown, — Entre nous, did you ever get an • 
advance from Trist? Roses and honeysuckles have left 
me penniless. I have got on to T[rist]'s picture, and shall 
have done it in much less than a month, so would like to 
draw half its price ; but wouldn't well like to propose if 
he isn't used to be "drawed like a badger." — Ever yours, 

D. G. R. 

What do you think of putting a nimbus behind my 
Venus's head ? I believe the Greeks used to do it. 



49. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
[25 August 1864.] 

My dear Brown, — . . . I'll forbear from springing at the 
unaccustomed throat of Trist, if possible ; but really a man 
shouldn't buy pictures without nerving himself beforehand 
against commercial garotte. — Yours ever truly, 

D. G. R. 



J. A. FROUDE, 1864 63 



50. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
I September 1864. 

My dear Brown, — ... I finished Trist's pot-boiler 
to-day, and lo the pot shall boil for a season. For him, may 
his mirth, when he sees it, not be even as the crackling of 
thorns under a pot. He will face it on Saturday. — Your 

D. Gabriel R. 



51. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
[5 September 1864.] 

My dear Brown, — Mr Trist was here to-day and took 
his picture, and liked it very much, and paid for it. I have 
been at work on it exactly eight days, so it pays better 
than most things, though cheap. . . . — Yours ever, 

D. G. R. 



52. — J. A. Froude to William Rossettl 

[The article by Swinburne which is here referred to 
must apparently be a specimen of his Essay on Blake. I 
do not however remember that this was actually offered 
to Froude for Frasers Magazine. I certainly did not either 
contribute or tender to that magazine an article on the 
stupendous masterpiece Atalanta in Calydon. The reason 
per contra must I think have been that I was offering to 
TJie Pall Mall Gasette a critique on that drama : it was 
considered too exuberant in praise, and was not inserted.] 



64 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

6 Clifton Place, Hyde Park. 
21 November [1864]. 

My dear Rossetti, — Nobody knows better than you 
the difference between real eloquence and florid fine 
writing, nor would you speak of anything as " tran- 
scendently fine " without weighing your words, 

I have seen some things by Swinburne, and heard others 
read. There was no doubt a power of a kind in them. . . . 
Your own opinion weighs so much with me that I would 
very gladly see his article. Could you not get it from him 
without mentioning my name ? . . . At all events I will 
trust your judgment about Atalanta, and leave you free 
to say what you like about it. — Faithfully yours, 

J. A. FroUDE. 



53. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[Rossetti, in this note, passes rather summary sentence 
upon two painters of distinction. Of Albert Moore neither 
my Brother nor myself saw much at any time. So far as 
I observed, he did not come out much in conversation, yet 
it is quite possible that among his genuine intimates he 
was not " a dull dog." Inchbold I knew well, and liked 
him ; though it is a fact that there was in him something 
between uneasy modesty and angular self-opinion, not 
promoting smoothness of intercourse. My Brother, who 
had probably seen less of Inchbold than I had, did not 
affect personages of that turn ; it was somewhere about 
this time that he said, in talking to me and others (I think 
Mr George Meredith was one), " I catt't get on with men 
who are not men of the world." To term Inchbold "less 
a bore than a curse" was not reasonable, if reason consists 
in well-weighed moderation : but Dante Rossetti did not 
always want to be thus reasonable.] 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1864 65 

1 6 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
[? 1864]. 

My dear Brown, — I'll come Saturday of course. As 
to bores, I've met Moore once, and found him a dull dog : 
accordingly the other day, meeting him, I was as though 
I saw him not. Whether he noticed or not I don't know, 
but dull dogs are best avoided. Inchbold is less a bore 
than a curse. In the latter capacity he courts elaborate 
avoidance rather than deliberate invitation. I hope this 
sudden outburst of fashion means tin. — Your affectionate 

D. G. R. 
P.S. — I suppose it's togs and resignation, isn't it? 



54, — Dante Rossetti to Allan P. Paton, Greenock. 

[This note was printed, not long after Rossetti's death, 
in a little magazine called T/ie NortJi Parish Magazine 
(Greenock). Four stained-glass windows were, in conse- 
quence of the note, supplied by the Morris firm for the 
Old West Kirk there. As that Greenock magazine can 
be known to very few persons, I have thought it permis- 
sible to reprint the letter.] 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
24 November 1864. 

Dear Sir, — Many thanks for your very kind letter. My 
advice to you in this matter is to put the window in the 
hands of Messrs Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, & Co., 8 Red 
Lion Square, London, W.C. Mr E. B. Jones has made 
many designs for this firm, and I have made some also — 
both of us indeed being some sort partners in it, as are 
Mr Madox Brown and various other artists. I could not 
undertake to say exactly by what member of the firm the 
designs for your window would be made. For myself, I 

E 



66 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

have been so much occupied with my pictures for some 
time past that 1 have found no time for other work. 
From my own point of view, any work issued from this 
firm would be very superior to any other work I know. 
Of course they would furnish the window complete. Were 
you in London at any time, you would find much to 
interest you in the decorative work of various kinds at 
their place, and Mr Morris would be most happy to show 
you over it. Though the managing member of this 
decorative firm, Mr Morris may perhaps be better known 
to you by his beautiful volume TJie Defence of Guenevere 
etc. — I am, dear Sir, yours very truly, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 

P.S. — I think it better to return the sketch, lest you 
should need it. 



55. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[The " long-in-hand " picture for Mr Leathart was 
presumably the Found. As it continued still much longer 
in hand, Rossetti at last got Mr Leathart to relinquish it. 
Mr Clabburn was a Norwich manufacturer, known more 
especially to Mr Sandys the painter.] 

i6 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
5 December 1864. 

My dear Brown, — ... I met Anthony the other night 
at Boyce's, and asked him on Leathart's behalf whether 
he still possessed the Harvest-Field at Sunset, and found 
he does. Accordingly I should wish to write to L[eathart] 
on the matter (though knowing he is not much in the 
buying way just now) ; but am stayed by conscience, 
which reminds me I am always proposing other pictures 
to him without speaking of a long-in-hand one of mine 
for him. I thought I would ask you if you could con- 



CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1864 67 

veniently open the subject to him, as I think he named to 
you as well as to me his wish for an Anthony, and asked 
you to enquire. If you can't write him however, I will. 

I wish I had had one of those small things of yours 
by me yesterday. Clabburn called with his Wife, and I 
feel sure would have bought. As it is, he bought a 
Legros — perhaps more than one. — Yours ever, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 
PS. — Legros is married. 



56. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
[8 December 1864.] 

Dear Brown, — . . . I've just had lent me my old first 
picture — Girlhood of Virgin. I can look at it a long 
way off now as the work of quite another " crittur," and 
find it to be a long way better than 1 thought. — Ever 
yours, 

D. G. R. 



57. — Christina Rossetti to Dante Rossetti. 

[The "nestling of unearthly aspect" was (I am pretty 
sure) a little Japanese carving — as supremely good as 
such things very generally are with that (in its own line) 
incomparable artistic nation. The *' nest of crocodiles " 
must be a drawing of various crocodiles (or I believe more 
properly alligators) by the French artist Ernest Griset, 
then deservedly famous for grotesque designs of various 
kinds. My Brother had given it framed to Christina : she 
retained it till her death, and it is now mine. Christina 
urges Dante not to " purchase the Prudent " : but he did 



68 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

purchase the Prudent — i.e., a separate large Griset of an 
alHgator — and gave it to her : it was disposed of after her 
death. This term "the Prudent" means "the Prudent 
Crocodile," which figures in Christina's fantastic poem 
My Dream : I possess a pencil-sketch of hers (contem- 
porary with the poem, 1855) showing the prudent crocodile 
in three several actions : finally, as he " shed appropriate 
tears and wrung his hands." — The reference to " my 
Alchemist " and " the Prince " applies to her other poem 
T/ie Prince's Progress. It was Dante Gabriel who got her 
to turn a brief dirge-song which she had written into that 
longish narrative, as piece de resistance for a new volume. 
The " three pot-boilers for Macniillan's Magazine " may 
perhaps have been Spring Fancies, Last Night, and 
Consider: these at any rate were the three poems by 
Christina which were the first, following December 1864, 
to appear in that serial. " The fate of my own Bogie " 
is an allusion to the poem named At Home, one of the 
best things that Christina produced. — The Davenport 
Brothers and their seaitces are possibly nearly forgotten 
now. In 1864 they electrified London by performing, 
professedly through spiritual agency, various surprising 
feats, especially that of getting suddenly free from 
elaborate rope-bindings. After a while there appeared to 
be a general consensus that these American thauma- 
turgists were mere impostors or jugglers — on what 
evidence I forget. — " My early head " must be the head, 
painted from Christina, of the Virgin in the picture of 
the Girlhood of Mary Virgin. I do not remember about 
Deverell's raising an objection to the chin in this head.] 

81 High Street, Hastings. 
23 December 1864. 

My dear Gabriel, — Thanks for a specially dear letter 
received last night, and a nestling of unearthly aspect 
come to hand this morning. His exceeding comicality is 
of the choicest. How very kind of you and William ! 
But I am so happy in my nest of crocodiles that I beg 



CHRISTINA ROSSETTi, 1864 69 

you will on no account purchase the Prudent to lord it 
over them : indeed amongst their own number, by a care- 
ful study of expression, one may detect latent greatness, 
and point out the predominant tail of the future. 

True, O Brother, my x^lchemist still shivers in the blank 
of mere possibility ; but I have so far overcome my feelings 
and disregarded my nerves as to unloose the Prince, so that 
wrapping-paper may no longer bar his " progress." Also I 
have computed pages of the altogether unexceptionable, and 
find that they exceed 120. This cheers though not inebriates. 
Amongst your ousted I recognize several of my own 
favourites, which perhaps I may adroitly re-insert WHEN 
publishing-day comes round. Especially am I inclined to 
show fight for at least one tersa-riina, in honour of our 
Italian element. Meanwhile I have sent three (I hope) 
pot-boilers to Mac's Mag. 

Think, if you all are so kind as to wish me among you 
on Monday, whether I shall not be sharing your wish : if 
unbeknovi^n I could look in upon }'ou sucking pulp of 
(metaphorical) plums and peaches, I should not fear the 
fate of my own Bogie. But common sense rules that here 
I must remain, and nurse my peccant chest ; which, after 
making great apparent progress, has this morning entered 
a protest against being considered well. So a potion or 
two must form part of my Christmas fare. If ever you 
should look in upon us, you know you will be a boon ; but 
I can't wish you or any other of my consanguines to come 
shivering down in this weather to the detriment of their 
bodily well-being or mental peace. 

Your notes on the Davenport seance are most interest- 
ing. To me the whole subject is awful and mysterious ; 
though, in spite of my hopeless inability to conceive a 
clue to the source of sundry manifestations, I still hope 
simple imposture may be the missing key : — I hope it, 
at least, so far as the hope is not uncharitable. At any 
rate I hope without any qualification that you and William 
escaped bumping bangs to the maiming of your outer men. 

As to news, it has become to me a creature of the past : 



70 ilOSSETTl PAPERS 

look elsewhere for news, but not to me. I lugged down 
with me a six-volume Plato, and this promises me a pro- 
longed mental feast. Jean Ingelow's 8th edition is also 
here, to impart to my complexion a becoming green tinge. 

If you do have my early head photographed, I shall 
enjoy seeing it once more, finished off by the chin to 
which Mr Deverell demurred. 

With much more love than news, and every best Christmas 
wish temporal and spiritual, — Your affectionate Sister, 

Christina G. Rossetti. 



58. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[The query which opens my extract refers to the exhibi- 
tion of his own works which Brown was now projecting. 
He took a room or rooms in Piccadilly. In some room 
in the same house there was, or had been, an exhibition 
termed " The Talking Fish " — i.e., a seal that was got to 
utter some noisy but indefinite sounds, which amounted 
to something far other than talking. Mr Hamerton's 
pictures also had been on view in the same house.] 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
Midnight., 1864-5. 

Dear Brown, — . . . Are you to succeed Hamerton, or 
the Talking Fish ? and when ? I also got H[amerton]'s 
volume of verse by some means. As you say, it is far 
from being without merit. . . . — Ever yours, 

D. G. R. 



59. — Frederic Shields to Dante Rossetti. 

[Rossetti's water-colour of Hesterna Rosa (repeated from 
a pen-and-ink design of much earlier date) is the subject 



FREDERIC SHIELDS, 1865 11 

bearing a quotation from the song in Sir Henry Taylor's 
PJiilip van Artevelde, " Quoth tongue of neither maid nor 
wife " etc. Mr Frederick Craven was the owner of the 
water-colour. — The latter part of the letter refers to the 
volume of woodcuts from Mr Shields's own designs to 
Pilgrim's Progress, a remarkable and admirable series. 
The letter must belong to the early days of his acquaint- 
anceship with Rossetti. "Charles II." is named inad- 
vertently instead of James II.] 

50 Russell Street, Hulme, Manchester. 
9 January 1865. 

My dear Sir, — On Friday last I saw the Hesterna Rosa. 
What a blaze of glory I received as my first impression ! 
. . . And I am not alone in this. Mr Craven said : " I 
wrote very little more than an acknowledgment of its 
receipt to Mr Rossetti, for I was afraid that, if I attempted 
to write what I felt, it would appear fulsome." . . . 

I was astonished that you should have dwelt so care- 
fully on my designs in the book as your remarks made 
evident. I know the Moses and Faithful is a sad failure, 
but I cannot lay the blame on the unfitness of the subject 
for pictorial treatment. I think I could do it very differently 
now — for I feel the truth Bunyan would here convey better 
than I did when I made that design. I think it might be 
made so much of by one who could do it rightly. I also 
quite agree with you that it would have been better to 
have made the " Good Shepherd " in actual shepherd's 
dress ; but one can only bear to think of the oriental 
shepherd in such connection, and this would have neces- 
sitated Syrian sheep, about which I know nothing ; so I 
thought it better to keep to my English sheep, and the 
old conventional robe. You credit me with too much 
thought and intention when you suppose that I meant 
the lamb on the banner in the Vanity Fair to have any 
deeper motive than a reference to the ensign of that 
bloody mercenary of Charles II. — Colonel Kirke — who so 
cruelly murdered the poor Somersetshire peasantry after 



72 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Monmouth's insurrection. It is one of their heads that 
I suppose to surmount the pike of the flagstaff. Colonel 
Kirke seemed to me to supply a figure of that military 
life which seeks only its own emolument or glory at the 
price of the blood and tears of thousands. I should not 
like to be thought to make Christian turn his back on 
the Soldier altogether — not whilst 1 remember men like 
Gardener and Havelock. . . . — Ever most truly yours, 

Fred, J. Shields. 



60.— Christina Rossetti to Dante Rossetti. 

[The reference to " Prudentius " is explained by my 
note to No. 57. — " Mrs Heimann " was an old friend of all 
of us — wife (now widow) of Dr Adolf Heimann, the German 
Professor in University College, London. — " Sheet M " 
must be a sheet in a re-edition of the Goblin Market 
volume : this sheet consists principally of the poems Sleep 
at Sea and From House to Home. — Maria's Italian Exercise- 
book was published in 1867. There are two companion 
volumes : Exercises in Idiomatic Italian, and a key to it, 
Aneddoti Italiani. The phrase "out came the Prince" etc. 
must mean that Christina had now composed some portion 
of The Prince's Progress relating to the Prince himself, 
but not that portion in which the Alchemist figures. 
— Henrietta, our cousin Henrietta Polydore, was then 
already invalided with the beginning of her consumptive 
malady, and was staying at Hastings along with Christina, 
whose health also was extremely delicate for a while. She 
seemed at that time more definitely threatened with con- 
sumption, as indicated by a violent and persistent cough, 
than at any other period of her life.] 

81 High Street, Hastings. 
16 January 1865. 

My dear Gabriel, — A thousand thanks for Prudentius, 
though indeed I am not easy at so many kind presents. 



TEODORICO PIETROCOLA-ROSSETTI, 1865 73 

But please on no account send him and his compeers to 
keep me company. I shall much more enjoy falling into 
his ambush on my return home. 

Equal thanks for the welcome Times ; though Mamma 
had sent me the gist extract, and Mrs Heimann, ever 
friendly, the article. Of course I am crowing. . . . 

I don't think your critique on slieet M can profit me 
this edition, as surely M must already be printed off: but 
thanks all the same. Foreseeing inutility, I have not 
grappled with the subject by comparing passages (N.B. 
Nerves). 

Have you heard of Maria's astute plan for an Italian 
Exercise-book ? I am doing some of the subordinate work 
for her down here in my hermitage. Truth to tell, I have 
a great fancy for her name endorsing a book, as we three 
have all got into that stage, so I work with a certain 
enthusiasm. This morning out came the Prince, but the 
Alchemist makes himself scarce, and I must bide his time. 

Henrietta's love. Uncle Henry left us last Monday. . . . 
— Your affectionate Sister, 

C. G. R. 



6i. — Teodorico Pietrocola-Rossetti to William 
RossETTi.— Translation. 

[My Cousin, the writer of this letter, has been mentioned 
by me elsewhere. I possess the selection of my Father's 
poems prefaced by G. di Stefano.] 

Glizebrook Villa, 2 Park Road, New Wandsworth. 
23 January 1865. 

My dear, much-loved William, — . . . You will please 
me by accepting with goodwill two-dozen select Cavour 
cigars, which I have brought from Turin. Smoke them 
with your friends, and let them remind you of that eminent 
statesman, who has not only given his name to the re-arising 



U ROSSETTI PAPERS 

of the Italian nation, but created and baptized the Cavour 
cigar — which he was wont to smoke with desperation, 
filling with its fragrance the saloons of the Ministry, and 
the ante-room of the Palazzo Carignano. . . . 

Have you read that biographical notice prefixed by 
Stefano to your Father's poems? He has taken it from 
that which I published in Turin. 

I hear that you are about to bring out a translation of 
the Inferno of the great Allighieri. As that is the most 
difficult division of the poem for the purpose of trans- 
lation, and all the English versions as yet produced seem 
to me paraphrases, I eagerly wish to read yours : don't 
forget. . . . — Your attached Friend and affectionate Cousin, 

T. PlETROCOLA-ROSSETTI. 



62. — Christina Rossetti to Dante Rossetti. 

[" The annotated Prince " appears to be a portion of 
The Prince's Progress on which my Brother had written 
some remarks. — The dread which Christina expresses of 
" indefinite delay " on her part had probably been intensi- 
fied by the very subject-matter of this poem. — The " new 
little things" were the poems named Grown and Flown, 
Dost TJioii 710 1 care, and Eve.\ 

81 High Street, Hastings. 
30 \Jamiary 1865]. 

My dear Gabriel, — Here at last is an Alchemist reeking 
from the crucible. He dovetails properly into his niche. 
Please read him if you have the energy ; then, when you 
return him to me, I must give a thorough look-over to 
the annotated Prince; lastly, I do hope Vol. 2 will be 
possible. One motive for haste with me is a fear lest 
by indefinite delay I should miss the pleasure of thus 
giving pleasure to our Mother, to whom of course I shall 
dedicate : suppose — but I won't suppose anything so dread- 



CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1865 75 

ful ; only, knowing her intense enjoyment of our perform- 
ances, I am keenly desirous to give her the pleasure 
when possible. He's not precisely the Alchemist I 
prefigured, but thus he came and thus he must stay : you 
know my system of work. 

I am much better indeed, yet beyond a certain point 
I don't get : however, obviously, I cannot remain here 
quite indefinitely. 

Of course I know that to make Vol. 2 we must have 
recourse to some not skimmed by you as cream, but I 
have a predilection for some of these ; and I have by me 
one or two new little things which may help : at this 
moment I feel sanguine. — Your affectionate bore, 

C. G. R. 



63. — Christina Rossetti to Dante Rossetti. 

[The term " Lizzie's work " indicates the few poems which 
Lizzie Rossetti had produced in her too brief life. None of 
them appeared in any of Christina's volumes : as to this 
point see also her letter No. 65. — I am not aware that the 
Rev. Orby Shipley produced any illustrated Christmas 
volume containing a poem by Christina.] 

81 High Street, Hastings. 
I \February 1865]. 

My dear Gabriel, — ... It delights me that you approve 
of my Alchemist ; you know I am always nervous in such 
suspense : thanks for prospective annotations. 

I can't tell you the pleasure with which I welcome your 
kind loan of Lizzie's work. The packet is not yet in my 
hands, but very likely it will come by the mid-day 
delivery. ... I wonder if possibly you might ever see fit 
to let some of dear Lizzie's verses come out in a volume 
of mine ; distinguished, I need not say, as hers : such a 
combination would be very dear to me. 



76 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Do you remember Mr Shipley and his three Lyras? 
From the three he plans compiHng an illustrated Christmas 
volume, and putting-in something of mine. . . . — Very truly 
your affectionate Sister, 

Christina G. Rossetti. 



64. — Christina Rossetti to Dante Rossetti. 

[The numeration of the poems by Miss Siddal, given 
in this letter, stands thus : No. 2 is A Year and a Day, 
which appears in my Memoir of Dante Rossetti. No. 3 is 
Dead Love. No. 5 is Gone. I am not sure which poem 
is indicated as No. 7. That poem, as well as Nos. 3 and 
5, must be in the volume named RitskiJi, Rossetti, PrcB- 
raphaelitisni ; also No. 6 mentioned in the letter which 
follows this.] 

81 High Street, Hastings. 
6 February 1865. 

My dear Gabriel, — I enclose to you with hearty thanks 
your kind loan. 

How full of beauty they are, but how painful — how 
they bring poor Lizzie herself before one, with her voice, 
face, and manner! Fine as II. is, I don't admire it more 
than III. and V.: perhaps III. is my own favourite, piquant 
as it is with cool bitter sarcasm ; V. reminds me of Tom 
Hood at his highest. Our Mother is with me, come to 
stay with me a fortnight ; she was struck by VII., which 
with all its beauty seems to me not in the first rank. 

She charges me with her love to you. — Your truly 
affectionate Sister, 

Christina G. Rossetti. 



CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 18G5 77 



65. — Christina Rossetti to Dante Rossetti. 

[" The work on Goblin Market block " had to do with 
the engraved title-page, to suit it for a re-edition. — The 
phrase "your volume" indicates pretty clearly that by the 
present date — 1865 — Dante Rossetti had already some idea 
of publishing some poems at no very distant interval of 
time. — No. 6 of Lizzie's poems is the one named At Last. 
The " correcting small print " for the Society for Promoting 
Christian Knowledge related (solely, I think) to an Italian 
version of the Bible.] 

81 High Street, Hastings. 
10 [February 1865]. 

My dear Gabriel, — I am indulging in a holiday from 
all attempt at Progress whilst Mamma is with me : she 
gone (alas !), I hope to set-to with a will. Thanks for 
annotations, to be attended to. Do you know, I don't 
think it would have done to write the Alchemist without 
the metric jolt, however unfortunate the original selection 
of such rhythm may have been : but we will file and polish. 
How shall I express my sentiments about the terrible 
tournament ? Not a phrase to be relied on, not a correct 
knowledge on the subject, not the faintest impulse of 
inspiration, incites me to the tilt : and looming before me in 
horrible bugbeardom stand TWO tournaments in Tennyson's 
Idylls. Moreover, the Alchemist, according to original 
convention, took the place of the lists : remember this in 
my favour, please. You see, were you next to propose 
my writing a classic epic in quantitative hexameters or in 
the hendecasyllables which might almost trip-up Tennyson, 
what could I do ? Only what I feel inclined to do in the 
present instance — plead goodwill but inability. Also (but 
this you may scorn as the blind partiality of a parent) 
my actual Prince seems to me invested with a certain 
artistic congruity of construction not lightly to be despised : 



78 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

1st, a prelude and outset ; 2nd, an alluring milkmaid ; 
3rd, a trial of barren boredom ; 4th, the social element 
again ; 5th, barren boredom in a more uncompromising 
form ; 6th, a wind-up and conclusion. See how the subtle 
elements balance each other, and fuse into a noble conglom ! 
Thanks for the two valued prospective cuts (qu. have you 
a design of a tournament by you ?) and for the work on 
Goblin Market block. 

Lizzie's poems were posted to you before your last 
reached my hands : so I trust that days ago you received 
them safe and sound, and so I shall conclude unless I 
hear to the contrary. I think with you that, between your 
volume and mine, their due post of honour is in yours. 
But do you not think that (at any rate except in your 
volume), beautiful as they are, they are almost too hope- 
lessly sad for publication en masse ? Perhaps this is 
merely my overstrained fancy, but their tone is to me 
even painfully despondent : talk of my bogieism, is it not 
by comparison jovial ? However, if on careful re-reading 
the tone etc. subside to my excited imagination, it will 
give me sincerest pleasure if you will grace my volume 
by their presence. Meanwhile how odd it seems that just 
III., my admiration, is rejected by you as ineligible; about 
VI., I am rather inclined to agree in your verdict, sweet 
and pathetic as it is. . . . 

Do you remember long ago animadverting on my 
correcting small print for the S.P.C.K. ? I have just given 
up the work, as my eyes seem to suffer. . . . — Your 
affectionate Sister, 

Christina G. Rossetti. 



66.— Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[This joke about hanging applies (need I specify it?) 
to the hanging of the pictures which constituted Brown's 
Exhibition in Piccadilly.] 



THOMAS KEIGHTLEY, 1865 79 

i6 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
28 February 1865. 

Dear Brown, — I hear you're hanging yourself daily. 
Can one assist at the ceremony, if passing that way? I 
promise not to cut you down. — ^Your 

D. G. R. 

How does one jjet in ? 



6j. — Thomas Keightley to William Rossettl 

[Mr Keightley was decidedly right in the meaning 
which he assigns to the epithet bruno. He was not 
entirely right in supposing me to " reject " my Father's 
theory concerning Dante. I apprehend that some features 
of the theory are decidedly correct, and some others may 
be so without my being convinced of them. There are, 
on the other hand, certain points which I think clearly 
far - fetched and erroneous. — Mr Keightley's Expositor 
(published not long after this date) relates to Shakespear.] 

Belvedere, Kent. 
I March 1865. 

Dear William, — I thank you for the gift of your book. 
It is certainly a marvel of literality ; and I know from 
experience the labour it must have cost, and can guess 
pretty well how little that labour will be appreciated, and 
how ill rewarded. Nothing but what is amusing is now 
remunerated. Of course I will not flatter you by saying 
that you equal the vigour and harmony of the original : 
the difference of language makes that impossible. I am, 
by the way, one of those who think the Italian language 
as capable of force as any other, but it is always force 
united with polish and grace and harmony. 

I was annoyed to find in the very second line what 
appears to me to be an error. You render oscura by 



80 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

" darkling." Now, if I mistake not, this word always 
means " being in the dark," and is used only of persons. 
The proper term would be darksome or gloomy, or why 
not obscure} I may however be wrong, and )'Ou may 
have some authority that I know not of. 

I see (p. 46) you agree with Ruskin in rendering brutio 
" brown." Now in a note in my Milton I maintain that 
it is exactly our " dark," and I speak of Ruskin's " extra- 
ordinary misapprehension of it in this and other places 
of Dante." But here again I may be wrong. 

It really vexed me to see but one allusion, and that 
rather a slighting one, to your Father's theory. I infer 
from this that you reject it, like Gabriel. It is a curious 
instance of the well-known fact of children differing in 
opinion etc. from their parents — e.g., the Wilberforces 
turning papists. I however am unchanged ; and there 
is no fact in literature or in history of which I am more 
firmly persuaded than of the truth of his hypothesis respect- 
ing the Infei'no. Of the other parts, of course, I cannot 
speak, but I am certain also that he was right as to the 
Vita Nuova. At the same time you know I was fully 
aware of his errors and imperfections. I did, for example, 
all I could to get him to suppress the First Part of the 
Amor Platonico, and told him frankly it was all mere 
nonsense. That work, you are aware, is twice as long as 
it should be, and contains a vast deal of what I regard as 
mere rubbish. 

As to my Expositor, you will see something about it 
in the next N. and Q. I will make no effort to get it 
published. . . . — Most truly yours. 

Trios. Keightley. 



68.— Christina Rossetti to Dante Rossetti. 

[The lyric To-morrozv forms Part II. of Twilight Night : 
I do not find it in the Prince's Progress volume. As to 



CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1865 81 

" The Captive Jew," it is pretty clear that this is a semi- 
jocular title (invented probably by my Brother), and that 
the piece referred to is in fact the terza-rima which has 
now been printed under the name of By the Waters of 
Babylon. It was originally headed In Captivity, and was 
not included in the Prince's Progress volume. — Christina 
did not carry out her " puerile fancy " of making the last- 
named volume of exactly the same length as the Goblin 
Market one : the new volume proved to be a trifle the 
longer of the two. — "Prospective Jean Ingelow" indicates 
that this graceful and able poetess and estimable woman 
was proposing to visit Christina at Hastings. — Mrs Ludlow 
was a sister of Mrs Bodichon.] 

8 1 High Street, Hastings. 
3 IMarch 1865]. 

My dear Gabriel, — This morning, as the "post" is no 
longer running after me (like the coffin after a man in a 
very nightmarish story I once read), I can go into details. 

1. Prince's Progress. — I think the plot now is obvious 
to mean capacities, without further development or addition. 
" Aftermath " is left for various reasons ; the most patent 
I need scarcely give ; but also I think it gives a subtle 
hint (by symbol) that any more delays may swamp the 
Prince's last chance. In the same way, the obnoxious 
"pipe" having been immolated on the altar of sisterly 
deference, " Now the moon's at full " seems to me happily 
suggestive of the Prince's character. Of course I don't 
expect the general public to catch these refined clues ; 
but there they are for such minds as mine. 

2. Material. — I have a puerile fancy for making Vol. 2 
the same number of pages as Vol. i : also I independently 
think that some of the squad are not unworthy of a place 
amongst their fellows. Unless memory plays me false, 
Mrs Browning's My Heart and I does not clash with my 
To-morrow : if it does, I could easily turn my own " heart " 
into " wish," and save the little piece, for which I have a 
kindness. Again, I am much inclined to put-in one terza- 

F 



82 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

riina ; though whether my Judgment or Captive Jew I am 
not resolved. The Judgment is already published in one 
of Mr Shipley's books : and Martyrs' Song (in the same 
volume) was so honourably mentioned in a review we saw 
that that seems to constitute some claim on reprint. I 
will try not to spoil my volume, or deal a death-blow to 
my reputation, however. 

3. Transmission to Mac. — Might I, instead of sending 
direct, send them through your brotherly hands? When 
I have put them in order, I should be so glad if you would 
put the finishing touch to their arrangement. That is one 
reason for wishing to send them through you ; and another 
is that then I foresee you will charitably do the business- 
details ; my wish being for same terms as Goblin Market. 
One single piece in Vol. 2 belongs neither to Mac nor to 
myself; to wit, L.E.L.; but I have Miss Emily Faithfull's 
permission to make use of it. . . . 

May I hope that you will again look at my proofs as 
they go through the press ? If so, you had better have 
them before they come to me : and then I think I shall 
send them home for lynx-eyed research after errors, before 
letting them go to press. But perhaps I may be snug 
at home again before my first proof hatches. Which intro- 
duces my health with a graceful flourish : a little hobbly, 
thank you, but in an uninteresting way not alarming ; so 
day by day home looms less remote. 

I shall be very happy if some day I meet Mrs Legros, 
though an old rule shuts me up from feasts and such-like 
during Lent. . . . 

Prospective Jean Ingelow inspires me with some trepi- 
dation : you may think whether down here I am not 
acquiring the tone along with the habits of a hermit. My 
Ludlow exertions were not congenial, though Mrs Ludlow 
is charming. . . . 

Please, if any of my beggaries bore you, reject them 
with scorn. Uncle Henry and Henrietta send love. — Your 
affectionate Sister, 

Christina G. Rossetti. 



CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1865 83 



69. — Christina Rossetti to Dante Rossetti. 

[" Feelings there are " : this refers to a distich which 
used to amuse all of us considerably — I don't remember 
in what " poet " we found it — 

" Feelings there are that warm the generous breast : 
They may be known, but cannot be expressed." 

The " woodcuts " were those designed by Dante Gabriel 
for The Princes Progress — or (rather than woodcuts) the 
designs themselves, not yet engraved. In the cuts as now 
seen the Prince remains beardless, but the Princess's face 
is veiled. The " severe female " may be a little — but only 
a little — like Christina. — Under the Rose is now named 
The Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children : as first 
printed, it bore its original title. — The Martyrs' Song- and 
the terza-rima composition named After this the Judgment, 
did obtain insertion in the volume. The Mr Cayley here 
mentioned was the very able translator of Dante, Charles 
Bagot Cayley]. 

81 High Street, Hastings. 
6 [March ^ 1865.] 

My dear Gabriel, — You confer favours as if you were 
receiving them, and I am proportionately thankful : but 
what says the poet? — 

" Feelings there are " etc. 

so I need not aim at self-expression. I hope the peccant 
" word or two " may yet be tackled between us : meanwhile, 
I readily grant that my Prince lacks the special felicity (!) 
of my Goblins ; yet I am glad to believe you consider with 
me that it is not unworthy of publication. What a most 
delightful pair of woodcuts ! thank you with all my heart. 
Do you think that two small points in the frontispiece 
might advisably be conformed to the text? — to wit, the 



84 HOSSETTl PAPERS 

Prince's "curly black beard" and the Bride's "veiled" face: 
all else seems of minor moment. Surely the severe female 
who arrests the Prince somewhat resembles my phiz. Of 
course you shall have back the charming sketches ; only 
via home instead of direct from me, as I know the pleasure 
the sight will give our Mother, to whom I take the liberty 
of lending them, but I will ask her not to delay returning 
them to you. , . . 

In Vol. 2 you will find a longish thing (not only 
finished but altogether written just now, and indeed 
finished since last I wrote to you) which no one has yet 
seen. I don't know whether you will deem it available ; 
if not, please let me have it again, and I will fill deficit 
from the squad ; if on the other hand it passes muster, 
it will, I believe, stop the gap single-handed. Under the 
Rose it is called, in default of a better name. But please 
tell me whether you don't think it will after all be well 
to put in Martyrs' Song and the terza-rinia from L\yrd\ 
Mystica. They have won a word of praise from Mr 
Cay ley, and a review (I forget which) has been enthusi- 
astic about me in L\yrd\ Jll[ystica] : so perhaps they might 
take : and, using these, I will soothe your feelings by sup- 
pressing my Captive Jew without a murmur. There's a bait ! 

To be tooked and well shooked is what I eminently need 
socially, so Jean Ingelow will be quite appropriate treat- 
ment, should she transpire : she has not yet done so. 
— Your gratefully affectionate Sister, 

C. G. R. 



70. — Teodorico Pietrocola-Rossetti to William 
RossETTi. — Translation. 

[These extracts come from a letter of some length. 
The writer had received a medical education, and at one 
time he practised medicine as a homceopathist] 



TEODORICO PIETROCOLA-ROSSETTI, 1865 85 

Glizebrook. Villa, New Wandsworth. 
9 March 1865. 

My very dear William, — I have received your English 
version of the first part of Dante's Comedy, and I thank 
you for it affectionately. I have begun reading it, and I 
think you have hit the mark. Italians will not say of you 
" traduttore traditore,^' * for the sense of the text is marvel- 
lously reproduced, and with great fidelity. Of the merits 
of the work I will not speak, for it is full of them, — but 
of some little blemishes, which I take it upon me to submit 
to your attention. . . . 

Page I, "Because the rightful pathway had been lost." 
I should rather read (with Aldus, the Vulgate, the Floren- 
tine Academicians, and all the moderns) "Che" (not Che) — 
Che being always used by Dante as equivalent to " in die, 
in cuiy In this line 12 you at once have an example 
of this — " Che la verace via abbandonai" or " At which 
point " etc. Dante had not lost himself in Florence becai-ise 
the true path had been missed, but because in Florence 
there was then none such, torn as it was by political 
factions. I should therefore translate, "In which the right- 
ful pathway had been lost." . . . 

Some while ago I took a little respite from my small 
affairs, and ran up to see Gabriel again. He has rounded 
out like a big baby. Bravo ! 

But I was afflicted at hearing that kind excellent 
Christina is somewhat worse in health, and had brought- 
up blood. This information pierced my heart. . . . Secre- 
tions of blood show that the patient is in the second 
stage ; and then, I regret to say, she did wrong in taking 
change of air. This is sometimes beneficial in the first 
stage, but in the second and third it does no good, but 
often harm. . . . First of all, bear it well in mind that 
milk, especially ass's milk, is the best medicine in the 
second and third stages. ... As regards medicines, 
there is, besides milk, nothing else than phosphorus, 
administered in minute doses. . . . Fever, preceded or 
* Translator tradncer (or more literally, traitor). 



86 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

followed by perspirations, may be overcome by a few 
drops of aconite napellum, dissolved in pure distilled 
water. . . . But what is most essential is that her room 
should be heated by wood-fires. Coal-fires exhale such 
a quantity of carbonic gas that this would make the 
patient's condition worse. These are counsels of friend- 
ship and affection which I offer to your Mother with 
regard to Christina. She should lay it to heart that 
medicines cannot act upon the patient — except milk, 
aconite, and phosphorus. — Your very affectionate Cousin, 

T. PlETROCOLA-ROSSETTI. 



71.— Charles Cayley to William Rossettl 

[This is an interesting little point of Dantesque textual 
criticism, which will at once be understood by readers 
familiar with Canto 5 of the Inferno in the original. As I 
have shown elsewhere, Mr Ruskin was provoked with Mr 
Cayley for having translated according to the reading 
" succedettc."'] 

5 MONTPELLIER ROW, BLACKHEATH. 
10 Mafch 1865, 

Dear Rossetti, — ... I have thought of a new argument 
on the line you and Mr Barlow discussed, beginning " Che 
succedette " or " siigei- dette " or the like. Does Dante prefer 
dt'ede or detU for gave} I suppose in the middles of lines 
it is hard to judge, for none of the MSS. appear to be 
credited with any purity in their orthography. But in the 
Riviario I find four lines ending in dicde, none in dette (as a 
verb in the 3rd person). Now the chances are, Dante 
would have somewhere used dette for a rhyme if he had 
liked it, or if it had belonged to his dialect native or 
adopted, as much as diede. (We must also observe the 
rhymes on dicdi^ and the use of die?) Now " suger diede " or 



CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1865 87 

^^ succia diede^' would not have been very likely to suggest 
" succedette." I don't suppose dette is positively confirmed by 
stette, credette, etc., as the Latin forms and accents are 
not quite analogous. 

I don't fancy Barlow can have made good use of his 
many MSS. He seldom arrays them in the order of their 
merits; or, if he does, judges of it by their ingenuity, 
not antiquity. . . , — Yours sincerely, 

C. B. Cayley. 



72. — Christina Rossetti to Dante Rossetti. 

[I have no recollection of the periodical entitled Rose, 
Shamrock, and Thistle. — The Royal Princess ivas retained 
in the volume, and Amor Mundi did go to The Shilling 
Magazine, where it was illustrated by Mr Sandys. Mr 
Lucas — who seems now to have been the editor of that 
serial — had previously been editor of Once a Week. I 
forget why Christina had been " the Pariah of Once a 
Week " : one of her poems, Maude Clare, was published 
there, but presumably some other poems had been 
declined. — It is evident that some one — but I know not 
who — had assimilated Christina as a poetess to Miss 
Bessie Rayner Parkes, better known now as Madame 
Belloc : I suppose it is still remembered that such a 
poetess as Eliza Cook did exist in those days, and existed 
in edition after edition. — The reference to the epithet 
" hairy " applies to stanza 6 in The Princess Progress. — The 
quaint solecism, " Things which are impossible rarely 
happen," occurred (if I remember right) as a sentence in 
an Anglo-German Exercise-book by Dr Heimann : at any 
rate, it often came up to our lips in those years. — ^^ Atalanta 
and the Bruno Catalogue " are Swinburne's glorious drama 
AtahDita in Calydon, and the Catalogue Raisojine written 
by Madox Brown for his Exhibition. — My Brother had 
lately been elected a member of the Garrick Club.] 



88 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

8 1 High Street, Hastings. 
[Marc/i 1865 ?] 

My dear Gabriel, — "Mine truthfully " is a critic begging 
the loan of Goblin Market for purpose of reviewing it 
along with Jean Ingelow and Mrs Ed[ward] Thomas. I 
mean to be propitious and lend it : fortunately I have a 
copy down here. My merits are to be discussed in the 
Rose, Sliamrock, and Thistle: a fearful periodical, I cannot 
but fear, but do not know ; do you know it ? 

Thanks emphatic and copious on all points. I think — 
especially if the Royal Princess is retained, which I leave 
to your decision — we can well spare one of the four 
pieces you name from Vol. 2, as far as bulk goes. My 
preference would be for Shilling Mag \.o get Amor Mundi \ 
but " tin " is too luminously alluring to be rejected, 
whichever Mr Sandys may select. It is rather triumphant, 
too, Mr Lucas wanting me, the Pariah of Once a Week. 
Of course I needn't say how much I should prefer you 
as my illustrator to the world in general, but can well 
believe that you have not time for Mr Shipley, any more 
than for the May Shilling Mag. . . . 

" Bessie Parkes " is comparatively flattering : call me 
" Eliza Cook " at once and be happy. Please make your 
emendations, and I can call them over the coals in the 
proofs : only don't make vast changes, as " I am I." Hairy 
I cannot feel inclined to forego, as it portrays the bud 
in question. . . . Songs in a Cornfield is one of my own 
favourites, so I am especially gratified by your and Mr 
Swinburne's praise. 

You would be a dear turning up in these parts : but 
I do hope to be at home again at very latest to-day 
four weeks. 

Meanwhile, is not Vol. 2 at last ripe for transmission 
to Mac ? I feel a pardonable impatience. Of course I am 
setting to work chewing the cud you serve to me ; but we 
won't keep back Vol. 2 for the unapproached result. Do 
you know, I do seriously question whether I possess the 
\vorking-power with which you credit me ; and whether 



WILLIAM ALLINGHAM, 1865 89 

all the painstaking at my command would result in work 
better than — in fact half so good as — what I have actually 
done on the other system. It is vain comparing my 
powers (!) with yours (a remark I have never been 
called upon to make to any one but yourself). However, 
if the latent epic should " by huge upthrust " come to the 
surface some day, or if by laborious delving I can unearth 
it, or if by unflagging prodment you can cultivate the 
sensitive plant in question, all the better for me : only 
please remember that " things which are impossible rarely 
happen " — and don't be too severe on me if in my case 
the " impossible " does not come to pass. Sometimes I 
could almost fear that my tendency is rather towards 
softening of the brain (say) than towards further develop- 
ment of mind. There's a croak ! 

Anticipated thanks for the Atalanta and Bruno Cata- 
logue to come. I shall be glad if the Piccadilly exhibition 
raises our old friend to his just position before the 
public. — Always your affectionate Sister, 

C. G. R. 

Henrietta's love : her improvement continues. Is the 
Garrick Club nice ? and do you mean to attend ? Who 
proposed you ? 



73. — William Allingham to William Rossettl 

Lymington. 
19 March 1865. 

My dear William, — Best thanks for your gift. I have 
read the introductory writing and several books ; and, as 
far as I am able to judge, consider that you have perfectly 
carried-out your intention. I have more reliance on yours 
than on any version ; pray finish the work. I should be 
glad to have, into the bargain, from a mind so fair as 



90 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

yours and that has so much studied Dante, some general 
estimate of his poem. One might consider ist. Its plan, 
and relation to the Age (its "accidents"); 2nd. Its aesthetic 
qualities ; 3rd. Its absolute truths. 

To descend — my volume Fifty Modern Poems is just 
coming out. Most of the pieces have been in magazines 
etc. The whole is to myself already a thing of the past, 
and not very interesting. I am occupied with other ideas. 
One quality the book has (implied in " Modern ") — it is 
in harmony with the best minds of our day as to religion, 
being at once reverent and anti-dogmatic. . . . 

I have been invited to give a lecture in Dublin, and 
have agreed for 19 May, subject " Poetry." Never tried 
lecturing before, and don't very well see my way, but 
think one ought to try, . . . — Always yours, 

W. Allingham. 



74. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[Cheyne Walk. 
21 March 1865.] 

My dear Brown, — To-day I took Craven of Manchester 
to the late Fish's premises, and he was delighted beyond 
measure, — as sure to bite, I should say, as the fish himself. 
But he wants water-colours. He is in London for a few 
days only, and wants if possible to look you up. I shall 
try if I can come with him one evening; so write to ask 
you what evenings (and daytimes), for some days to come, 
you are likely to be in, or rather on which you will tiot, as 
a guide. — Your 

D. G. R. 

By the by, I suppose you won't kick C[raven] out. 



PROFESSOR NORTON, 1865 91 



75.— Professor Norton to Dante Rossetti. 

[Mention is here made of a translation by Dante Rossetti 
from Dante's Inferno. This was a misapprehension on 
Professor Norton's part — the translation being in fact 
mine. In saying that Longfellow's translation was in 
" ten-syllable verse," the Professor was only partially 
correct ; the intermixture of eleven-syllable with ten- 
syllable verse being very profuse, and (if I may give 
expression to my personal opinion) a serious detriment 
to that, in most respects, highly laudable rendering.] 

CAMBRmcE, Massachusetts. 
21 March 1865. 

My dear Rossetti, — ... I am glad to see by the 
advertisement in The Reader that your translation of the 
Ififeriio is published. I await it with very great interest ; 
the greater because during the past year I have been 
reading and revising with Longfellow a translation that 
he has made in the same manner, I take it, as yours — that 
is, in unrhymed ten-syllable verse. The Inferno is now 
printed, or rather stereotyped, but it will not be published 
till the other portions of the poem are ready. The whole 
is translated, and is going through the press — the last 
canto that we read over, day before yesterday, being the 
eleventh of the Purgatory. Longfellow has had ten copies 
of the Inferno struck off, in order to send one of them to 
the Festival in May at Florence — prefixing a special 
dedication — " In Commemorazione del Secentesimo Anni- 
versario della Nascita di D[ante] A[llighieri]." The volume 
is of great beauty ; no more beautiful book has been 
printed in America ; and the translation seems to me, who 
am not indeed an impartial judge, exceedingly good, by 
far better than any hitherto made. It is a pleasant 
coincidence that you should have been engaged on the 
same work at this time. 



92 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

I shall send you in a few days a copy of a little essay 
On the Original Portraits of Dante (illustrated with photo- 
graphs from the Giotto portrait and from the Mask) which 
I have got up also for the festival. . . . 

War, you see, does not occupy all our thoughts— and 
yet it underlies them all with a constant current of feeling. 
These last four years have been full of the profoundest 
and most engrossing interests to us. They have made a 
great nation out of a great people. They have wrought 
immense and most happy change. One might well rejoice, 
in spite of all the sorrows and trials of the war, to live 
in such a time. Now the war seems near its end — it has 
done its work, and peace will be welcome. . . . 

Tell me what you know of Ruskin, and, if you see 
him, give to him my unchanging love. — Ever, dear Rossetti, 
faithfully yours, 

Charles Eliot Norton. 



76. — Madox Brown to William Rossetti. 

14 Grove Terrace, Highgate Road. 
30 March 1865. 

My dear William, — I recognized your pen in the Pall 
Mall. ... I knew there was no other but you and Gabriel 
who could know so much about me, the subject generally, 
and have at the same time the faculty to [be] putting 
it in so masterly a way. It is a glorious puff, and out- 
does Palgrave's in the Saturday ; and is altogether most 
grateful and cheering to the senses that are to be tickled 
by flattery. The wind-up is magnificent. I shall want 
to see you shortly, to talk these sort of things over. ... — 
Ever yours sincerely. 

Ford Madox Brown. 



CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1865 93 



77. — Christina Rossetti to Dante Rossetti. 

[The first jocular reference to " paroxysms of stamp- 
ing " etc. may have had its origin in a caricature of 
Christina which Dante had drawn in 1862, as a skit upon 
a certain phrase used in a complimentary critique of the 
Goblin Market volume. — In writing " U. the R.," she must 
have meant the poem Under the Rose: "that screech" 
was seemingly some subsidiary part of the poem, for the 
poem as a whole was not " suppressed " in the Prince's Pro- 
gress volume. Christina acted as proposed under her 
heading No, 3 ; also under No. 4, four final stanzas being 
thus omitted from The Ghosfs Petition. — In Songs in a 
Cornfield, the second song was originally one that begins 
" We met hand to hand " : this was cut out, and another 
song was substituted, beginning " There goes the swallow." 
" We met hand to hand " was afterwards published as the 
opening section of Tivilight Night. — The Spring Quiet, in 
its MS. form dated 1847, consists of four-line stanzas: 
later on a fifth line had been added to each stanza. When 
printed in the Prince's Progress volume, the fifth line was 
deleted, save for the final stanza.] 

81 High Street, Hastings. 
31 March [1865]. 

My dear Gabriel, — After six well-defined and several 
paroxysms of stamping, foaming, hair-uprooting, it seems 
time to assume a treacherous calm : and in this (com- 
paratively) lucid interval I regain speech. 

1. U. the R. — Yes, suppress that "screech." 

2. Jessie Cameron. — Stanza 2 I cannot consent to sacri- 
fice ; to my conception of the plot and characters it really 
is essential : concede me that stanza 2 with a good 
grace. 

3. Bird or Beast. — The last four lines of the first stanza 
are (I confess) stupid ; but the last four of the second I 



94 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

like. What would you say to omitting those first four 
altogether, but retaining the other four by arranging the 
whole piece in quatrains? If however this proposal dis- 
tresses you, let the eight go. 

4. Ghosfs Petition. — Please cut it short, as you suggest. 

5. I admit the less simple character of the second Song 
in a Cornfield, and admit it as a blemish : a yet graver 
one however it would seem to me to make one of a party 
of reapers who are resting under the " burden of full noon- 
day heat " suddenly burst forth with " Gone were but the 
winter." This therefore we will, please, set aside. But 
would you prefer to fill the gap with one of the two songs 
which I enclose ? If so, your kindness will, I am sure, 
not shirk pasting it over the defaulter : unless you think 
said defaulter worth cutting out and erecting into an 
independent existence, when it might figure under the 
cheerful title If so, or any other you like. 

6. How is it possible that not only you recognize No. 
I of Spring Fancies, but resuscitate defunct lines from 
memory ? The great original stands as The Spring Quiet 
in a little book dated 1847 ; a little book so primitive that 
for aught I know you did not drag its depths for G\obli)i] 
M[arket] vol. : whence pray do not deduce that it con- 
tains other treasures, for I am not aware that it does. I 
will send you an exact copy of its primeval form : then 
will you most kindly set it right from the printed copy ? 
but suppressing fifth lines and keeping extra stanzas as 
you judge best. Or, on second thoughts, I will retain 
certain alterations which I know are in the printed copy 
and which were the result of mature reflection, and will 
make the sea-stanza come last, as you put it ; but I must 
still trust to your kindness to compare and alter it by 
the printed copy, in case I get a word here or there wrong. 
Only of course I will not trouble you to do any of this 
unless you think the piece worth adding to Vol. 2. 

7. After all which, I shall hope the MS. will go to 
Mr Macmillan ; but, if that enterprizing publisher has 
been prodding you, it is di proprio moto, not instigated 



ALEXA WILDING, 1865 95 

in word by me. Your woodcuts are so essential to my 
contentment that I will wait a year for them if need is — 
though (in a whisper) six months would better please me. 
But perhaps it might be as well to commence printing as 
soon as may be, in case that Fata Morgana of delight, my 
sight of Italy with William, should by any manner of 
means come to pass ; of course, if the proofs could be 
got through before our start in May, it would be charming. 

I am delighted to find that The Shilling Mag. has got 
Amor AInndi, and to foresee Mr Sandys as my illus- 
trator. . , . 

I trust by this time Atala?ita and my note of admira- 
tion have reached you. . . . — Your grateful affectionate 
Sister, 

C. G. R. 

I hope I may get home next Thursday, but of course 
must keep an eye on the weather. Here in the middle 
of the day it is delightfully sunny and warm. Miss Ingelow 
zvrote at last from East Parade ; not called, because her 
Brother has been having scarlatina. So precautionarily 
we don't visit ; but talk and shake hands if we meet, which 
has happened once. 



78. — Alexa Wilding to Dante Rossetti. 

[I give this note as marking the date when Rossetti 
began painting from one of his most valued sitters, whom 
he had first met casually in a street. Miss Wilding's head 
appears in Sibylla Palinifera, Veronica Veronese, La 
Ghirlandata, and several other paintings and drawings.] 

23 Warwick Lane, Newgate Market. 
8 April 1865. 

Miss Wilding presents her compliments to Mr Rossetti, 
and will feel obliged if he will send any letters to the 
above address, as she has obtained her Mamma's per- 



96 HOSSJETTI PAPERS 

mission to sit for any picture after tiie specified time of 
three weeks. — I am, Sir, yours respectfully, 

A. Wilding. 

P.S. — If you should require me to sit, let me know, 
and I will come if possible. 



79. — Christina Rossetti to Dante Rossetti. 

[The reference to " my woful phiz " may probably be 
taken in immediate connexion with the proffered Madeira, 
as for instance Dante Rossetti may have observed that 
Christina looked delicate, and would be all the better for 
some well-bodied wine ; but there might be other explana- 
tions of the phrase, not worth suggesting here. The letter 
shows that Christina had already become a patient of Sir 
William Jenner, who continued attending her henceforth 
until he relinquished practice : he brought her through 
more than one formidable illness. — Rose and Rosonary 
appears to have been a poem published anonymously in 
Maaiiillan s Magazine. I have no precise recollection of it.] 

166 Albany Street. 
\April 1865]. 

My dear Gabriel, — . . . Thank you most warmly for 
the promised half-dozen Madeira, and for your brotherly 
(not critical) consideration of my woful phiz : but the half- 
dozen (please) you must let me with affectionate gratitude 
decline. I know, though you do not tell me, that Madeira 
has become an unattainable dainty fit for the discriminating 
palate of connoisseurs, altogether lost on a Goth who 
knows not wine from wine, and who lumps all subtle 
distinctions in the simple definition " nice." Dr Jenner 
moreover has always talked of sherry for me, so to sherry 
I may stick. 

Rose and Rosemary is a lovely scrap : if I have to write 
to Mac, I will fish for its author. My Prince, having 



CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1865 97 

dawdled so long on his own account, cannot grumble at 
awaiting your pleasure ; and mine too, for your protecting 
woodcuts help me to face my small public. . . . — Your 
truly affectionate Sister, 

Christina G. Rossetti. 



80. — Thomas Carlyle to Madox Brown. 

[A characteristic little note, referring to Brown's Exhibi- 
tion. Many readers will recollect that Carlyle sat to Brown 
for a leading figure in the large picture named Work.] 

Chelsea. 
15 April 1865. 

Dear Sir, — Might I ask you to put my Wife's name, 
instead of mine, on the inclosed which you have been so 
kind as to send me. I have already been twice (and she 
as well) to No. 191 ; and feel very likely to return: but the 
female mind seems to be still more adventurous in this 
affair, and wishes to be independent of me. — Yours very 
sincerely, 

T. Carlyle. 



81. — Christina Rossetti to Dante Rossettl 

[The names Meggan and Margaret figure (as readers 
may remember) in the poem called Maiden-Song. — The 
passage about " a yell " (" a yell for fire ") occurs near the 
end of A Royal Princess. — The " enormous improvement " 
which Dante Gabriel effected in L.E.L. consisted in making 
lines I and 3 of each stanza rhyme — which they do not in 
the original MS. In that MS. the title of the poem is 
Spring. I presume that Christina substituted the title 
L.E.L. (though not specially appropriate perhaps) in order 

G 



98 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

to make the poem look less like a personal utterance. — 
Margery did not after all appear in the Prince's Progress 
volume ; nor (so far as I am aware) anywhere before I 
printed it in Christina's New Poems, 1896. I am unable 
to say which are the " three stanzas " here referred to. — The 
published poem By the Sea, 3 stanzas, is extracted from a 
longer and more personal poem, 6 stanzas, named A Yaivn. 
— The published poem A Portrait consists of two sonnets : 
the second of these is the Lady Isabella here mentioned ; 
the first, when it stood singly, was named St Elisabeth of 
Hungary. Lady Isabella (as I have said elsewhere) was 
Lady Isabella Howard, a daughter of the then Earl of 
Wicklow. — Alice Macdonald, who set Tlie Bonrne to music, 
is a sister of Lady Burne-Jones : she married Mr Kipling, 
and became the mother of Rudyard Kipling, and is herself 
of late known as a poetess. — I have not traced any poem by 
Christina under the title Come and See. I presume that she 
refers here to the poem headed / zvill lift up mine Eyes unto 
the Hills: if so, Dante Gabriel's objection seems to have 
prevailed, for that poem does not appear in the Prince's 
Progress volume. Neither does Easter Even appear there. 
— The Dead City and Amore e Dovere are two of the 
poems in Christina's privately-printed Verses of 1847. — 
The phrase, " I do not send you the groans herewith," 
seems to refer to some portion of the poems which Dante 
regarded as more peculiarly dismal in tone, and on which 
he had bestowed the epithet "groans."] 

45 Upper Albany Street. 
[1865— ?^/r//.] 

My dear Gabriel, — Thanks many. On almost all points 
I succumb with serenity : now for remarks. 

Meggan and Margaret are, I suppose, the same name : 
but this does not disturb me. Do you think it need ? 
Meggan was suggested by Scotus once to me, and comes 
out of a Welsh song-book. May, Meggan, Margaret, sound 
pretty and pleasant. 

Last Night: metre slightly doctored. 



CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1865 99 

Royal Princess. — " Some to work on roads," etc., is by 
so much one of the best stanzas that I am loth to sacri- 
fice it. Is it so very hke Keats ? I doubt if I ever read 
the lines in question, never having read the Isabella 
through, I do not fight for the R.P's heroism ; though 
it seems to me that the royal soldiers might yet have 
succeeded in averting roasting. A yell is one thing, and 
a fait accompli quite another. 

L. E. L. : adopted, your enormous improvement. I am 
glad you retain my pet name. . . . 

Margery: has lost her 3 stanzas, and gained thereby. 

By the Sea has superseded A Yaivn ; for which how- 
ever I retain a sneaking kindness. 

Three Nuns: stet be it. 

Birds-Eye View : I have made three alterations. Was 
not aware of the inconvenient resemblances. . . . 

Following your advice, I have copied from Grandpapa's 
volume Vanity of Vanities, Gone for Ever, and the Lady 
Isabella sonnet. Don't you think this last would do very 
well as sequence to the one called A Portrait? But 
please re-arrang€ as seems well to you. For the moment 
I will place it as I think. 

All these make-up the bulk of Goblin Market within a 
few pages. Now for meek divergence from your pro- 
gramme. 

I incline to reinstate The Bonnie, partly because Mac 
likes it and it is already in Magazine, partly because / 
like it, partly because it has been set to music very prettily 
by Alice Macdonald. . . . 

Last of all, could you re-consider your verdict on Come 
and See ? It is, to own the truth, a special favourite of 
mine ; and seems to me unlike any other in the volume, 
or indeed in G\oblin'\ M\arket\ I have moreover altered 
what you call the queer rhyme. In short, I should like 
particularly to put this piece in, and it has already been 
printed by Mr Shipley. If however after all you cannot 
bear it, would you rather see Easter Even put back ? This 
is no particular liking of my own ; but Mrs Scott told me 



100 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

that Scotus was struck by it quite remarkably, in Mr 
Shipley's volume where it is. . . . 

I don't think we need this time resort to The Dead 
City. As to Avwre e ^ Dovere, it would surely require 
evisceration to the extent of v[erse] 2. I think I could 
hunt up one, or possibly even two, Italian trifles to go 
with it : yet these would leave the Italian element in such 
an infinitesimal minority as scarcely to justify its intro- 
duction. 

If none of all my expedients will pass muster with you, 
I have but to launch forth into the rag-and-bone store ; 
thence, by main force, something must emerge. 

I hope after this vol. (if this vol. becomes a vol.) people 
will respect my nerves, and not hint for a long long while 
at any possibility of vol. 3. I am sure my poor brain 
must lie fallow and take its ease, if I am to keep up to 
my own mark. 

I do not send you the groans herewith, because, if you 
will kindly answer (what very little needs an answer), I 
will page said groans before consigning them to your 
brotherly hands. 

Mamma sends love. — Your affectionate Sister, 

C. G. R. 



82.— Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
18 April 1865. 

My dear Brown, — I've stuck you down at the Garrick ; 
and, on considering the few names of men you knew 
among the members, thought it best to ask Millais to 
second you, which he has done. Personal knowledge is 
necessary in a seconder, or perhaps I might have asked 
others. But on the whole it seemed to me you would wish 
Millais to do it, as a preliminary conciliating link with him 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1865 101 

before meeting him at the Club, as you would be sure to 
do, and he is very influential. I might have asked 
Woolner, but am still less in communication with him, and 
of course he would have less influence. Palgrave is not a 
member. 

I've begun an oil-picture all blue, for Gambart, to be 
called TJie Blue Bower. Come and see it in a week's 
time. . . . — Your 

D. G. R. 



83.— Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
[1865— ?^;^r//.] 

My dear Brown, — Howell and I are coming to see you 
on Tuesday evening if you'll be in. 

I wanted to say as follows. I find that there is a 
party-question made of your proposed election at the 
Garrick, and that on the whole, according to my own im- 
pression, it will be better to withdraw your name. I am 
very vexed about this, but do not know that it would 
have been possible to arrive at a knowledge of the danger 
by previous enquiry, even had I known enough people in 
the Club to form a judgment by. Val Prinsep told me 
how matters stood, he of course knowing every one. It 
seems there is a strong feeling against independent exhibi- 
tions, and that even Frith (who is fool enough, God knows) 
would never have got in but for the absence by accident of 
several members of Committee when he was elected. Val 
says Hunt would certainly not be elected. . . . 

Will you write me word whether, on the whole, you 
don't think it best to withdraw. Some of the best artistic 
names in the Club are now down to yours, but this has 
nothing to do with the Committee. — Ever your 

D. G. R. 



102 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



84.— Professor Norton to William Rossettl 

Cambridge, Massachusetts. 
9 May 1865. 

My dear Sir, — Had these been quiet times, I should 
have sooner thanked you for the copy of your translation 
of the Inferno which you were good enough to send me, 
and which reached me three or four weeks ago. Even 
now I cannot thank you for it as I would, for when it 
first came I was too much engrossed with other cares and 
interests to give to it the thorough attention it deserves, — 
and then Longfellow borrowed it from me, and still keeps it. 

That you have made choice of the true mode of render- 
ing the poem seems to me not doubtful. All the qualities 
of a great poem can never be rendered from one language 
to another. You remember Don Quixote's excellent com- 
parison of a translation to the wrong side of a piece of 
Flemish tapestry. A translator has to choose between 
fidelity to the spirit, and to the form. Now, in the case 
of The Divine Comedy^ it is certain that the form, and that 
part of the spirit of the original which inheres in the form, 
cannot be successfully, spite of Mr Cayley and Canon 
Ford (?), transferred to another tongue. The attempt ends 
in a tour de force, in which the spirit of the original 
vanishes. The essentially characteristic qualities of the 
poem can only be preserved in a literal unrhymed line-for- 
line version — its literal meaning, its simplicity, its strength, 
and to some degree its beauty. In such a translation its 
truthfulness is not lost, nor its depth of feeling obscured. 

And yet the best translation makes one who knows the 
original only feel the more strongly how untranslatable 
it is. 

I shall read your volume carefully this summer, and I 
am sure that I shall do so with a constant sense of 
pleasure in }'our success within the limits of what is 
possible. . . . 



JULIA CAMERON, 1865 103 

Political interests do not absorb our whole attention. 
I am glad to know that your sympathies have been and 
are with us in our great struggle for human rights — for 
liberty, justice, and order. Peace is coming fast, and we 
rejoice with our whole hearts in the prospect before us. 

Pray give my kindest remembrances to your Brother, 
and believe me always — Very truly yours, 

Charles Eliot Norton. 



85. — Julia Cameron to William Rossettl 

[This letter refers to Mrs Cameron's highly vigorous and 
artistic efforts in the photographic process. No doubt she 
produced various heads of Tennyson at one time or 
another. The one face spoken of may possibly be a 
profile which Tennyson himself used to term " the dirty 
old monk." He liked it none the less, and so did most 
people — and very deservedly. Or it may be that some 
larger and more strikingly effective head is in question.] 

Little Holland House, Kensington. 
13 May [1865]. 

Dear Mr Rossetti, — ... I have some things to show 
you worth your seeing. Amongst others my last of Alfred 
Tennyson — a head which is the first representation that 
entirely satisfies Mrs Tennyson. She says it is "a real 
Michelangelo — a head made to rule the world." It is in 
the Photo Exhibition, and therefore will, I hope, be 
favourably noticed when the real artist-eye falls upon it. 
Those here who have seen it, one and all, say it is by 
far the finest thing that exists of him — that it is as fine a 
poem as one of his best poems. ... — Yours ever truly, 

Julia Margaret Cameron. 



104 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



86. — William Rossetti — Diary. 

[This Diary relates to the only journey in which 
Christina saw either Italy or Switzerland. She gloried 
beyond measure in the wonders and beauties of Nature 
in Switzerland, and in these and almost everything else in 
Italy. Had she henceforth lived in Italy — with the one 
necessary companionship, that of our Mother — she would, 
I believe, have been a much happier woman than she was. 
But circumstances did not favour any such plan, and she 
never repined for the lack of it. The extracts which I 
give from this Diary are more numerous and detailed than 
usual, on the ground that it indicates in large measure the 
things which Christina, as well as myself, saw and enjoyed. 
This remark does not apply to theatre-going : Christina, 
through some moral scrupulosity, gave up the theatre when 
she was perhaps eighteen years of age, and she never reverted 
to it.] 

Monday, 22 May 1865. — Left London with Mamma and 
Christina ; to Paris by Calais. A very heavy dark morn- 
ing, with a little lightning and thunder, following a 
remarkably sultry day ; but this cleared up about the time 
of our starting, and the rest of the day, till towards dusk, 
very fine, with a most pleasant sea-passage. Some stormi- 
ness again as we neared Paris. Went to Hotel de Nor- 
mandie, where we are to have ordinary board and lodging 
at 8 fr. each per day. After dinner, to the Theatre Francais, 
where I saw the play which is the town-talk at present, Le 
Supplice d'jitie Fenivie, by De Girardin, brought into acting- 
order by Dumas Fils. The emotional acting of Favart is 
splendid ; and the piece on the whole is the only example 
I remember of the lacrymose moral-domestic which makes 
a not tiresome acting play — the dramatic-intense being 
combined with it in due proportion. 

23 May. — Went to the Exposition, which at first seemed 
the worst French Exhibition I ever saw, but by degrees 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 105 

a considerable number of superior works are, as usual, 
found. Whistler's Princesse du Palais de Porcelaine is a 
triumph of power in light colour ; Sellier's Dead Leander 
excellent, and not needlessly academic; Manet's Oly^npie 
a most extreme absurdity ; Courbet's Proiidhon and Family^ 
very curious, and mainly fine ; Tissot, Le Pj'intemps and 
V Enlevement ; Lambron, Virgin and Child with birds 
hovering about them ; etc, etc. Looked through perhaps 
two-thirds of the pictures, and a little elsewhere. A great 
storm of rain with lightning came on while we were at 
the Exposition, making great drenches in the ground-floor 
of garden and sculpture, and running in pools and streams 
here and there, even along the floors of the picture-galleries, 
A deal of bother and hanging-about consequent on this 
rain (which continued briskly after the first real storm had 
ceased), and the consequent penury of cabs. , . . 

24 May. — Went to Dessoye's Japanese shop, and bought 
the four pieces of broidered silk for Mrs Dalrymple, along 
with two Hokusai books and two bits of leather-paper 
for myself. Nothing here specially noticeable. After this 
M[amma] and C[hristina] went, to see the Heimann children 
in the Boulevard Hausmann, and I returned to the Ex- 
position. . , . 

25 May. — Went to the Louvre, where they have hung 
the portrait by A[ntonello] da Messina, bought at the 
Pourtales Sale. The only other thing that strikes my 
eye noticeably as new is a large Virgin and Child with 
Child-angels by Lippo Lippi, not of his very best quality — 
and possibly even this is not new. Saw among other things 
the " Etruscan " vase in the Musee Campana caricatured 
by Cham, a woman holding a pig over a man's head. 
Afterwards to the Societe d'Acclimatation, where I noticed 
the splendid Japanese peacocks — Pavo Spicifera — the 
breast being not sheeny blue, but scaly gold-and-green 
like the larger of the feathers on the exterior of the small 
train-quills. A great number of holiday-makers about, this 
being Ascension-Day, and consequently a festa : very many 
shops shut, including two Bankers that I called at to get 



lOG ROSSETTI PAPERS 

my circular notes cashed. They being closed, we go on 
without the change to Bale. After dinner, as dusk was 
deepening, went to look at the outside West front of 
Notre Dame, which seems pretty well finished with now. 
Swallows, as in 1861, careering about and about at a great 
rate: they had all gone towards 8h. . . . 

26 May. — Left Paris in the morning, taking tickets on 
to Lucerne, but booking luggage only to Langres, there 
to pass the night. A splendid day, showing forth, to more 
advantage than I remember seeing it before, this compara- 
tively tame yet by no means unpleasant route. Reached 
Langres about 2^ ; a tolerably long omnibus-drive leading 
up to the town, which stands conspicuously on a hill. Hotel 
de I'Europe, which seems more than reasonably comfortable. 
To the Cathedral, which has been originally (or perhaps 
only in part) a Romanesque building (the remains of this 
chiefly in the choir and apse) ; then the construction of 
the nave partly Gothic ; and the whole building completed 
or renewed in bare but not wholly undignified modern 
classic — circa 1650 (?) Seems at first to contain hardly any 
special interest, but there are still some good details. 
Romanesque capitals founded on the Corinthian, bases of 
pillars, friezes round arches, etc. A good Gothic statue of 
the Virgin and Child — and later {circa 1520?) another 
very pleasing, and a Ma>t of Sorroivs. A series of bas- 
reliefs, on a considerable scale of size, of Life of Christ, 
done by some good Renaissance artist about 1550. Two 
large tapestries framed as pictures. Some medallions of 
the old 16th-century glass, good. Walked out on the 
ramparts, to about one third or a quarter perhaps of their 
circuit. An extensive amphitheatrical view in gentle swells 
and patched out in cultivation, presenting a decidedly fine 
prospect of good yellow and green etc. flat tints, almost 
entirely destitute of shade ; the trees being few, and hardly 
showing their shadows. Man)- quaint and picturesque com- 
binations in the streets, of roofs, chimneys, house-fronts, 
etc. : the buildings solid, and mostly of stone, with tiled 
roofs between brown and red. The town seems particu- 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 107 

larly clean, and like an old place solidly built at first, and 
getting continually renewed without sinking into mere 
modernism — quiet, orderly, and fairly prosperous. It is a 
leading place for cutlery. Fish here is served near the 
end of dinner. After dinner we walked to the opposite 
(left) end of the town, where the ramparts lead into a 
very fine avenue of trees, with alleys laid out with flowers 
etc. Then I went back towards the centre of the rampart- 
walk, to watch the sunset, a very lovely one ; quiet but 
rich, giving the full colour-chord of the prism — blue, fading 
into faint yellow, yellow, orange, crimson, purple, and then 
the dense blue of the low hills, and the mysterious greens 
of the landscape nearer. 

27 May. — Revisited the Cathedral, and went to the 
Musee, on the site of the old Church of St Didier 
destroyed at the Revolution. The tomb-chapel of the 
Saint remains, having some columns with fine Romanesque 
capitals, and now containing many Gallo-Roman antiquities 
found in digging for the citadel, Gothic fragments, etc. 
Above are rooms for paintings, ethnologic specimens, 
natural history, etc. By no means a bad museum on its 
small scale ; the best thing perhaps being some panels of 
wood - carvings of the Passion, from Switzerland, circa 
1 500, quite remarkable for talent without overdoing ; also 
a very beautiful leather lute-case (?) with inlet figures 
of birds etc. Left about 2|, and went on to Bale ; the 
weather still unimprovably fine, with endurable heat. 
Hotel du Sauvage at Bale. 

Sutiday, 28 May. — Went with M[amma] and C[hristina] 
to look at the Cathedral (outside, service going on inside) 
and the Rhine Bridge. . . . Had at dinner (the first time 
within my recollection) kid — gigot de chevreuil ; agreeable 
taste, something like Welsh mutton with the dry texture 
of hare. . . . 

29 May. — Got £y:> circular notes changed into 750 
francs. We then went again to the Cathedral, looking into 
the details of the interior, and C[hristina] and I going up 
to the lower parapet for the view. There are two rooms 



108 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

full of antiquities, casts, etc., old iron, tapestries, sculpture, 
etc. etc., and many of them very excellent indeed. Of 
the sepulchral monuments in the Church, one, a knight 
coming third from the entrance, is singularly fine, and all 
of them decidedly so, more or less — also, in the choir, the 
sepulchral monument of the Wife of Rudolf of Hapsburg 
and her youngest child. Then to the Museum, in which 
the Holbeins are most supreme, and several of the other 
old German or Flemish masters very fine ; also a very 
fine portrait of a young man by Titian. . . . Left Bale in 
the afternoon, and went on to Lucerne — a grey, sunless, 
and at times slightly showery, afternoon succeeding con 
siderable heat. The distant Alps mapped out in snow 
which one sees for half an hour or so before arriving at 
Lucerne, are very fine. 1 think I had on both my 
previous visits passed this part of the journey at night, 
and had consequently not seen it. Schweizerhof, where 
M[amma] and C[hristina] have a fine room looking out on 
the lake. Strolled a little about the lake-side and streets 
after tea. 

30 3Iay. — To the Cathedral, having two thin, tall, tiled 
spires — not a beautiful or remarkable building, and not 
older, I suppose, in any part than 1600 or so. Inside, two 
elaborate carvings of the Pietd and Death of the Virgin, 
which seem to be very fair works of their kind of about 
that date, but re-gilt and painted very lately in such 
killing colours that one can scarcely say whether there is 
or not anything good in them. The churchyard, forming 
a sort of cloister round the Cathedral, pretty. Towards 
the centre of the city is a splendid old fountain with 
armed knights in niches all round — say c. 1480 to 1500. 
Crossed the delightful old wooden bridge with indifferently 
painted Dance of Death, c. 1601-20. Had a two hours' row 
on the lake to and from the hotel-side. . . . Many quaint 
details and combinations in the streets, and a good amount 
of Swiss costume. The Cathedral here is Catholic — at 
Bale Protestant — the chief language in both places, German. 
Crickets (I suppose they are) make a great noise at night, 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 109 

like a legion of birds chirping. I hear as I write one or 
two cicalas in the trees about, there being a double row of 
red chestnuts along the lake-side in front of the hotel. . . . 
After dinner, went to see Thorwaldsen's Lion, which is 
impressive, though the expression not quite up to the 
mark, nor equal to that of the finished model by himself, 
shown in a little house hard by. He himself did not 
work on the monument, but a sculptor or sculptors from 
Constance. The last survivor of Louis the Sixteenth's 
Guard, a drummer, is affirmed to have died in Lucerne 
about two months ago. Also to see a collection of stuffed 
Alpine animals — bears, lynxes, marmots, wild cats, wolves, 
chamois, owls, lammergeyer, eagles, etc. : a most splendid 
living eared owl here, the local name for which is grand-due. 
On again to the nearer bridge ; the green of the lake seen 
through its chinks peculiarly beautiful in the early twilight. 
Bought half-a-dozen stereoscopic prints. A marmot, says the 
woman of the collection, can be tamed if taken young, not 
otherwise — also a lynx, but not a wild cat ; lammergeyers 
rare, A gentleman at the Bale Hotel told me that a 
chamois-hunter will not kill more than a dozen or so now in 
a season. 

31 May. — Left Lucerne by the boat at 10 A.M. to Fliilen, 
whence I had engaged a carriage for us three alone, from 
Christen of Andermatt, 120 francs, which, it seems, is a little 
less than the diligence-fare for three. Ascent of the glorious 
lake, and more glorious mountain up to Andermatt, which 
lies towards the beginning of the snow-line at this time of 
year — snow being here in tolerable and afterwards in very 
large quantities. The day fine, but with comparatively little 
sun, especially towards the later hours. Devil's Bridge very 
grand. The river which runs all the distance this side of 
Mount St Gothard is the Reuss. At Andermatt, which we 
reached towards seven, the landlady represented to my 
satisfaction that the agreed price, 120 francs, was really too 
little to pay her as contractor, 150 to 155 being the fair sum. 
I volunteered to make it up to 130. Strolled out in the early 
evening or late twilight back on the road we had come — very 



110 ROSSETTl PAPERS 

solemn and enjoyable, with a youngish moon and fair number 
of stars. 

I June. — Went on from Andermatt to Bellinzona : from 
Airolo or so the route is one which, on both previous 
occasions, I performed by night. It is scarcely or not at 
all inferior to the road up the mountain on the Reuss side, 
but runs more in definite and tolerably open valleys between 
two walls of hills, somewhat more bluff and obtuse perhaps 
than the other line, and with a less marked quality of views 
down defiles crowded with pines, etc. Here the river is 
the Ticino, and very fine also. At Faido, where we dined, 
a beautiful cascade, utilized for several water-mills. The 
personnel of the inhabitants changes markedly for the 
better as soon as one passes from the German to the 
Italian side of the mountains ; a very pretty, indeed 
beautiful, girl at the Airolo Hotel. Arrived about 6i at 
Bellinzona, which is a fortified town of tolerable size with a 
largeish Renaissance Church. Some fine battlemented views 
on entering. Albergo dell' Angelo. After tea strolled out 
of and through the town. Came upon a large open ground- 
floor very dimly lighted, and solid-built like a chapel, 
where were a score or so of women and girls engaged in 
some such occupation as stripping vine-branches, singing in 
loud chorus, at first solemn-sounding chants, probably 
religious — then a livelier strain of which I caught the words 
" Viva la Fedeltd." Very picturesque and telling this, in the 
darkest twilight. No lights in the streets, not even oil- 
lamps (save for the still-open shops) : a few bats flitting 
about. Red pigs about the neighbourhood of the summit 
of St Gothard, like choiropotami — one remarkably big and 
high-backed, but, as usual, thin by the English standard. 
Goats, small sheep, black and white. A great dearth of 
birds in all the higher or moderately high parts of the 
mountain. The Alpine roses }'esterday were very beautiful. 
They are not roses at all, but seem rather in the way of 
rhododendrons : the driver says they flower during one 
month only. They never grow absolutely by the wayside, 
but just a little up the slope, and only appear in particular 



WILLIAM llOSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 111 

tracts, a good way up on the ascent (as far as my experience 
here goes). 

2 Jime. — Left BelHnzona early in the morning, and went 
on to Como. Not far from B[ellinzona] one catches just a 
ghmpse of the Lago Maggiore, and about the same time 
begins the ascent (not to any very great height) of Monte 
Cenere. Further on, the Lake of Lugano. At Lugano we 
lunched, and went to see the Cathedral, a Renaissance building 
of no particular interest within or without, though just worth 
looking at when one has the time. Reached Como towards 
four, and put up at the Albergo d'ltalia, just at the head of 
the lake. The Cathedral here is a very peculiar one in its 
external sculptural decorations — two statues of the Plinys, 
four columnar rows of saints under niches, etc. ; also a large 
quantity of delicate Renaissance arabesques, of the Certosa 
class. The principal pictures are by Luini and G[audenzio] 
Ferrari — two or three in distemper by the former, and an oil- 
picture with predella, of the Virgin and Saint with the Acts 
of St Jerome ; all fine. There is also, set up in a sort of 
banner-like form in the nave, a canvas painted front and 
back with The Crucifixion and another subject by an un- 
identified painter, thought by some to be B[ernardino] Luini : 
to me it suggests Melozzo da Forli rather than anybody else, 
but this is a mere surmise. It is a fine work, originally 
somewhere up in or about the vaulting of the Church, and 
placed recently in its present position. Two or three very 
rich altars of painted and chiefly gilded wood figure-subjects, 
in just about the right condition of fading splendour, obscured 
but still rich. All the painted glass here is modern, by 
Bertini of Milan, and in its way a good piece of profes- 
sionalism. After dinner C[hristina] and I went out in a boat 
on the lake for an hour : the boatman a good-looking 
characteristic Italian, who spoke with great enthusiasm about 
Garibaldi's achievements hereabouts in 1859. Almost 
opposite our starting-place is a not lofty hill where 11,000 
Austrians were posted ; upon whom Garibaldi fell suddenly 
with 3000, and routed them very rapidly, and made them 
all clear out of Como : — this succeeding other the like achieve- 



112 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

ments at San Fermo and Varese. The Comaschi looked on in 
boats applauding (!). The boatman speaks very highly of 
Maximilian, and even enthusiastically of Radetsky, under 
whom he himself served in, or perhaps before, 1848. It 
seems Radetsky was very partial to his Italian and Hungarian 
soldiers, preferring them much for hill-service to Germans, 
and very indulgent in granting furloughs etc. Heard a 
nightingale on the wooded hills overlooking the lake, and 
saw the house which Queen Caroline used to occupy — also 
the historic tower of Baradello, " del tempo" as the boatman said, 
" dei Rouiani e di Federigo Barbarossay * I asked the boatman 
whether the people of Como would like to be under the 
Austrians again : he replied no, but with less decisiveness of 
phrase than similar questions generally elicit. 

3 June. — With M[amma] and C[hristina] revisited the 
Cathedral ; then the Broletto (which is merely an open 
arcade), and the Churches of San Fedele and of Sant' 
Abondio, the latter out of Como, being the ancient Cathe- 
dral. The exterior of the apse, with Lombardic sculptured 
hind-entrance, of San Fedele, is most ancient-looking and 
interesting : in the much-altered interior the most memorable 
thing is an old fresco triptych, noted by me in Murray.f 
There also a note on Sant' Abondio, the external window- 
carvings of which, of Lombardic birds, knot-patterns, etc., 
are comparable with anything I know of the class. Left 
Como about two by the omnibus to Camerlata, and thence 
rail to Milan ; where (the Hotel di Milano omnibus having 
somehow driven off prematurely) we put up at the Hotel 
Cavour, close to a new or altered tract named the Giardini 
Pubblici ; wherein are some animals, including (according to 
the omnibus-conductor) lions and tigers, but all I see in 
walking about the place are antelopes and the like, suited 
for an Acclimatization Society. After dinner went down 
to the Cathedral ; looking at only one side of which, I see 
some two or three score of (as it seems to me) entirely 

* Of the period of the Romans and Frederick Barbarossa. 
t The Virgin a?id Child, ivith Saints Roch and Sebastian — at the 
first altar to the left on entering-. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 113 

new statues, and new gable and pinnacle work. The 
statues, though not properly architectural enough, are works 
of very considerable ability in the mass, and tell well 
according to their scheme of work. Very great alterations, 
especially in the way of opening-out streets, are going on 
in this part of the city. I fear Milan will very soon have 
lost its fine character of very narrow streets of tall houses, 
delightfully shadowed and black in the intense sun. . . . 

Sunday^ 4 June. — This (or I believe in strictness yester- 
day, postponed till to-day as an ordinary festa-day) is the 
Festa dello Statuto, one feature of which is the unveiling 
of a statue of Cavour right opposite our hotel. There has 
also been a review etc. in the Piazza d'Armi, and the 
filing of National Guards, Cavalry, Artillery, etc., down the 
Corso Vittorio Emmanuele etc. (close to the South door of 
the Cathedral), which last I witnessed. But just about this 
hour deluges of rain, with lightning and some thunder, 
came down ; the rain lasting, still soaking enough, down to 
now (i|), much to the dripping and dragglement of plumes, 
regimentals, and banners, with which the streets are 
crowded, especially near this Corso. Hundreds of young 
boys in military training, some quite children, carrying 
their muskets. — Went into San Satire, an elegant dark 
Renaissance Church. The only work of art I saw, of in- 
dividual interest, is a life-sized or more group of the Pieta 
in gilt and coloured carved wood, now in a fine state of 
dimness ; some dozen figures or more remarkably life-like 
and impressive. Visited the Museo Civico, which consists 
entirely of stuffed animals, preparations for anatomical 
study, etc. To the Churches of San Bartolommeo (nothing 
particular) — San Marco, the remains of a fine Gothic ex- 
terior ; some interesting old sculptures, and the (as I think) 
Tintoret noted in Murray.* The Roman heads and in- 

* This work, I fancy, is not generally observed by tourists. My 
note upon it in Murray's Handbook runs as follows : — " Close to door 
of vestibule a very curious picture which must, I think, be a Jacopo 
Tintoret. Very fine in light and tone, and to a great extent in figures. 
Seems to be a miracle of Saint Mark, with a man who fell down in- 
side a church ; but subject difficult to me." 

H 



114 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

scriptions let into the arch in Corso di Porta Nuova ; and, 
on its northern side, the remains of a fine Gothic Madonna 
and Saints. A Church near this gate, without its fagade 
finished, has a painted wood Mater Dolorosa, really striking 
of its class {c. 1650?); and, on the opposite altar, a similar 
Crucified Christ, also worth looking at. The Madonna del 
Carmelo ; a fair Luini fresco of the Madonna and Child, 
•with Saints Sebastian and Roch. Strolled out to the Piazza 
d'Armi, whence snowy Alps are distinctly visible ; and went 
into a booth where feats of acrobatism and knife-throwing 
etc. were going on. The Cavour ceremony, illuminations, 
etc., are postponed till to-morrow on account of the bad 
weather, though there has been no heavy recurrence of 
rain since 2 P.M. or so. I see there is here a Via dei 
Fiori Chiari, as well as, and in the same neighbourhood 
with, the V[ia dei] F[iori] Oscuri. 

5 June. — To the Cathedral, where C[hristina] and I 
ascended the roof, and I to the highest point attainable. 
It is a surprising sight, the forest of pinnacles, statues, etc. : 
Monte Rosa, M[ont] Blanc, Saint Gothard, etc. etc., visible 
with snows amid clouds. To Sant' Ambrogio, the nave of 
which was filled up with a framework apparently for 
draperies, and a long service with sermon going on, so 
that we saw next to nothing beyond the atrium. Back to 
the hotel, and saw the unveiling of the Cavour statue by 
Prince Humbert ; who is less ugly than his photographs, 
dark, and dark or black haired, and looks as if he had a 
will of his own. To the Brera, for a hurried visit before it 
shut at three ; the splendid Tintoret of The Invention of the 
Cross is back in its place, and, I have little doubt, re- 
painted to some extent as well as cleaned, though the 
custode says only the latter. The Tintoret Pietd is most 
noble. There is one also by J[ohn] Bellini, three half- 
figures, looking to me quite re-painted all over. Revisited 
San Marco, the vaulting of which beyond the high altar 
(which I could not pass) of a Paradise, with concentric 
rows of nuns and other Saints, has a striking effect, fresco 
— I suppose Procaccini. In the evening went about by 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 115 

myself (M[amma] and C[hristina] in a carriage) to see the 
illuminations ; which were pretty, but, in consequence of the 
continuance of heavy showers up to twilight, much less 
than had been prepared for. One street lit up with 
Chinese lanterns, pretty : these elsewhere very rare. 

6 June. — Took a cab to see various places. The pictures 
in the Arcivescovado, the Ospedale Maggiore, which we 
went over, Sant' Ambrogio, San Vittore, San Lorenzo, the 
Ambrosian Library, Santa Maria delle Grazie, San Maurizio 
(a few notes in Murray). After dinner walked round the fine 
boulevards with double row of trees, chiefly chestnuts ; all 
the E[astern] outer line of the city from the Giardini to 
Porta Romana, and thence back by the inner canal-line ; the 
Duomo continually in view from the boulevards. The 
illuminations are renewed under better auspices of weather 
this evening, and are very pleasing in the Giardino (where 
alone have I been in the way of seeing them) ; chiefly or 
wholly oil burning in good-sized glasses, white, blue, and 
red, disposed in plant-like clusters. One very large on a 
sheet of water produces perhaps as good effect as illumination 
of an obvious but tasteful sort is capable of 

7 June. — C[hristina] suffering in the feet, M[amma] and 
I took from the Duomo a cab to various churches etc. . . . 
There has not as yet been a single day of more than reason- 
able heat. . . . 

8 Jii7ic. — Went with M[amma] to the Palazzo Reale, 
which contains from a dozen to a score of framed Luini 
frescoes brought from some other building: Destruction oj 
Egyptians in Red Sea, Christ in the Desert, Vulcan's Foro-e 
Padre Eterno (excellent), etc. etc. One of them, of Women 
Bathing, is certainly not inferior to anything I know by 
Luini, and most lovely for grace and purity. . . . Bust oJ 
Napoleon by Canova, about thirty. The Royal Chapel is 
plain. Napoleon IIL slept here in the King's bed after 
Solferino. The King comes here for the Carnival ; Prince 
Humbert lives in a Palace in the Giardini Pubblici, but 
passes the winters in Naples. . . . Left Milan, and went to 
the Certosa of Pavia (a separate station for the C[ertosa],) 



116 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

which is certainly an astounding place for multiplicity and 
finish of parts and details, and many of these exceedingly 
beautiful — as the St Sirtts Enthroned and other pictures by 
Borgognone, the monuments to Lodovico il Moro and his 
wife, the Gothic tablet altar-piece in hippopotamus-ivory, etc. 
etc. The convent-garden, with quantities of lilies, and a 
profusion of flowers dispersedly over the whole space (what 
I have always said would be the best thing), most lovely ; 
and after this a larger garden-square, grown chiefly with 
corn. Each of these enclosures is surrounded with an arcade 
covered with beautiful terra-cotta sculptures : the only pity 
is that one can't think of looking them properly through. 
The larger enclosure shows, rising above the walls of the 
arcade, the houses of the monks (some thirty), each a separate 
house containing four rooms and a garden-space or yard : 
one, now unoccupied, which I looked at, was very charming 
in its deserted and overgrown garden-ground. — On to Pavia, 
to the hotel mentioned first by Murray, the Croce Bianca, 
which is a very dingy and rather slovenly place, with doors 
that won't shut, grimy floors and walls, etc. ; in essentials 
however one gets on reasonably. The whole city, as far as 
seen this evening, has an air of decadence and neglect. A 
wonderful swarm of swallows round the angle of the Duomo ; 
which is a ruin of unfinish outside, but inside, by this almost 
darkness, singularly impressive in its scale, height, and 
simplicity of space. The outside contains several remarkable 
details of a much older Lombardic building, the present one 
being Renaissance. There is a tame black lamb at the hotel 
with white skull-cap and white tail-tip, who comes about and 
eats sugar etc. from one's hand like a dog. The head waiter 
came out strong in an impromptu political exposition. 
Napoleon has arranged it all with Victor Emmanuel that 
the Italians are to take Rome when the French army leaves. 
Victor Emmanuel is merely a finger on Napoleon's hand. 
When they get Rome, which is the chiave d' Italia,^ Venetia 
will come also by occupation or composition. The Italian 
army is some 500,000, the Austrian 700,000 ; but the Italians 

* Key of Italy. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI- DIARY, 1865 llT 

could at a pinch place 800,000 men in the field — the 
Austrians, with all their other difficulties, only 300,000. A 
word from Garibaldi, though gia vecchio* would raise 200,000. 
9 June. — To the Duomo, striking also and satisfactory by 
day, though not so impressive as at twilight. The tomb of 
St Augustine is one of the finest specimens of the elaborate 
Italian Gothic work that I know. San Michele, extra- 
ordinarily rich in Lombardic ornamental friezes and details 
within and without. A goodish number of them have been 
re-carved, and, to judge from the almost obliteration of some 
among those which remain untouched, hardly too soon. San 
Francesco and the Carmine — both very fine Gothic brick 
churches. San Marino. San Teodoro, 8th or 9th century, 
but its antiquity as a building almost destroyed ; two 
interesting series of 14th or early 15th century frescoes, 
Acts of St Theodore and St Agnes. Crossed the old covered 
bridge over the Ticino, getting a very agreeable though not 
striking view. Here a guitar-playing dwarf, more like those 
one sees in Veronese, Bonifazio, etc., than I remember ever 
encountering before ; a most extraordinary little man, and 
in height not three feet, I should think. The Church of 
Borgo Ticino, showing Lombardic remains, and marked to 
show the point the river rose to in '57, some 5 feet or little 
less against the walls of the church itself. Pavia is certainly 
the most depressed-looking place I remember in Italy. Padua 
alone could be named along with it, and that much less 
depressed than this — which is the more noticeable as it seems 
to take an ardent share in the national movement, the 
Churches containing (no doubt specially for the Festa dello 
Statuto) more patriotic inscriptions etc, to the King, Louis 
Napoleon, Cavour, the fallen in battle, etc., than I remember 
elsewhere. The city is in itself interesting, like other old 
places, but not with any peculiar amount or quality of 
picturesque detail apart from the Lombardic churches. — On 
to Brescia, which is a wonderful contrast to Pavia ; full of 
open spaces, plenty of air, clean, bright, and active-looking, 
a great centre of the silk-trade which pervades the district 

* Now old. 



118 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

all round. The journey hither, from soon before Bergamo, 
very beautiful rich foregrounds with mountain-backgrounds. 
Put up at the Albergo d'ltalia, just opposite the chief Theatre. 
Walked out in the twilight, passing through the Duomo, a 
spacious fine Renaissance building, especially within, as far 
as I could judge by this light. 

lo June. — The Cicerone here turns out to have known 
my father about 185 1, being then employed by Ferretti * in 
London : he had deserted from the Austrian service in 1848 
or '9 — name Fighisino or something of the sort. Many 
demonstrations of satisfaction at discovering, from what I 
said, who we were : he also knows Theodoric. He says 
Garibaldi uses this hotel when he comes to Brescia. He 
was here shortly before Aspromonte, and occupied room 
No. 6, which I thereupon looked at : he harangued the 
people from the balcony of my room, 37. — To the Duomo 
Nuovo, which by day is a handsome but not specially 
interesting Renaissance building. The Duomo Vecchio, 
entered herefrom, a rotunda looking outside merely like a 
Baptistery. Sant' Afra : Titian's Wojiian taken in Adultery, 
not a very interesting specimen — a re-painted Veronese 
of the Saint's martyrdom — a cleverly conceived Tintoret of 
TJie Transfiguration behind the high altar. Sant' Ales- 
sandro ; a fine Angelico, Annunciation, with predella from 
life of the Virgin : some other fair pictures of the second 
or third order. Santa Maria dei Miracoli, a small church 
with a gracefully sculptured Renaissance (early) exterior, 
and a fine Bonvicino (a few notes on these in Murray). The 
Palazzo Municipale, a very fine early Renaissance building, 
with busts of Roman Emperors etc. The frescoes well 
preserved (but half invisible through dust etc.), forming a 
considerable series on houses in the Contrada del Gambero ; 
the story of Lucretia among others (painted by Romanino 
and Gambara) ; about the most important set I remember 
preserved on mere street-architecture. The Broletto, fine 
old brick with a lofty tower. The Museo Patrio of an- 

* This Ferretti was a Protestantizing Italian, Editor of the Eco di 
Savonarola. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 119 

tiquities, including the famous Greek bronze Victoiy writing 
on a tablet. This building is on the foundation, and in- 
cluding the remains, of a Roman building termed the 
Temple of Vespasian (or of Hercules dedicated by Ves- 
pasian); and the entrance, with old columns, stairs, etc., amid 
wildly growing flowers and vegetation, is very charming. 
The Museo Civico, of paintings ; various more than fair 
(Raphael, Bonvicino, G[irolamo] dai Libri, etc. — a few notes 
in Murray).* Entered the silk-market, whither large and 
small proprietors from all round bring their cocoons. The 
trade, though still large, has, it seems, greatly declined 
through disease in the silkworms lasting these ten or twelve 
years, and probably caused by disease in the mulberry-trees 
or ^^ gelsi." Successive importations of new Japanese worms 
are resorted to : sulphur might cure the trees themselves, but 
cannot be used, as the worms would refuse to eat. Two 
cocoons were given us containing the chrysalis, which would, 
in the ordinary course, yield the moth ; which forthwith dies, 
leaving its '' sevienza" (I suppose Q^g) behind, to produce 
a new animal : this would be next Spring. I saw one of 
the moths in the street — a pretty one, white, both body 
and wings. After dinner went up a street rising in steps 
towards the Castello, and obtained a very fine panorama 
of Brescia and the neighbouring hills on either hand — the 
tower of Solferino visible (and I believe seen by me) in the 
distance. The hills hereabouts, it seems, are called the 
Ronchi, and are not recognized as pertaining to the Alps. 
The Church of San Pietro in Oliveto, hard by the Castello 
and now used for barracks, has outside six medallion half- 
figures of about half (or less) life-size — all fine, and the two 
of TJie Virgin and Announcing Angel singularly beautiful. 
In the Duomo Vecchio is a peculiarly fine piece of tapestry, 
placed panel -wise on the wall whereat the parish-priest sits 
when the bishop officiates : its design consists of birds amid 

* One of these notes may perhaps be cited. " Much the most valuable 
oil-picture (save the Raphael, for its name) I call a large Bonvicino 
(Moretto) of The Supper of EnwiaiiSy with Christ as a pilgrim : his best 
work within my knowledge." 



120 HOSSETTI PAPERS 

floral and other decoration — date, I suppose, c. 1450-80. 
I never saw anything to equal it of its kind, and hardly 
perhaps to class with it. The Cicerone says there are 
most magnificent tapestries in some noble houses (I forget 
which) which Rothschild wanted to buy, but found they 
would not answer for any of his rooms. 

Sunday, 1 1 June. — . . . After dinner we went to the 
Giardino Pubblico (rather pleasure-walk with trees than 
gardens), and heard the band of the Guardia Nazionale, 
which again, later on, played on the Piazza, a little beyond 
our hotel-windows. . . . We have not yet seen even one 
of the characteristic yellow and orange-copper Italian sun- 
sets, nor heard more than mere dribblings of cicalas. The 
people here and all below Milan strike me as less good- 
looking than there, or higher all up through Italian Switzer- 
land : humps and other deformities, as in Bergamo, numerous. 

12 June. — Visited the Campo Santo, somewhat on the 
model of the Bologna one, and it appears the earliest of 
all. Some monuments by Lombardi, especially an angel by 
a tomb awaiting the signal to sound his trumpet, show an 
understanding of this class of art. To the small but pretty 
garden left by Count Brussoni (one of the picture,- donors) 
to the city: rife with lizards. Re -visited San Nazaro 
and San Francesco. One of the left-hand chapels in the 
latter has a remarkable series of intarsiature from the life 
of Christ, some 25 to 30, c. 1500-20, with many artistic 
figures, groups, and effects, and rich general colour : Marriage 
oj Cana, Descent into Hell, and Resurrection, among the best. 
To San Clemente, containing the monument {c. 1845) 
to II Moretto, and three or four of his best pictures : St 
Ursula and the Virgins, and the high-altar piece of TJie 
Viigin and Child in a festooned baldacchino, and Sts. 
Clement, Dominick, etc., below, especially good ; the latter 
reputed his masterpiece. — On to Verona, enjoying the 
Lago di Garda views. At Peschiera I was called in to the 
passport-official, and asked whether 1 was an euiigrato Veneto : 
no further difficulty however was made as to visaing my 
passport, upon my saying that I was a nativo Iiiglese, Jiglio 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 l2l 

cHun Napoletano.^ Went to the Hotel delle Due Torri ; and 
we afterwards walked out in the twilight to the Ponte Nuovo, 
Piazza dell' Erbe, and Scala monuments, and into the adjoin- 
ing Church of Santa Maria Antica. Plenty of air, and the 
weather hitherto has never been more than reasonably warm. 

13 June. — Went to a few churches — Sant' Anastasia, 
San Bernardino, where we attended the service for the 
festa of St Anthony of Padua; very festive, with some fine 
voices singing. San Zenon, in which no more frescoes 
have been uncovered since last year : the same fine-faced 
and enthusiastic custode as last year, who has himself 
been concerned in the washing and uncovering of several 
of the frescoes. Santa Maria della Scala, the belfry painted 
with a valuable series of frescoes in compartments of the 
life of some saint (I could not learn who). The portraits of 
two of the Scalas, spoken of in Murray, are at the base of a 
venerated draped picture of Tlie Virgin and CJiild, but are 
so covered up as to require a deal of trouble to uncover 
them, not to be managed on any ordinary occasion. San 
Fermo, in which also extensive tawdry preparations for 
the Sant' Antonio festa were defacing the building. The 
Scala Monuments. After dinner bought two or three 
curiosities and photographs, and went to the Roman Arena, 
where feats of horse-riding, learned dogs, etc., were going 
on, with a " Clowns Liglese." The audience consisted four- 
fifths of Austrian soldiers, and merely sprinkled the vast 
space : only a small enclosed oblong within the true, 
arena was occupied by the performers. The Piazza dell' 
Erbe seems to me about the finest thing I know in the 
way of street-architecture for business, not for monumental 
show — fine in itself, and much more so when populated, 
and perhaps most of all towards twilight. Changed our 
last circular notes for ;^20, and found this afternoon that 
we still possess about ^51 to carry us home, which should, 
I conceive, be amply enough. 

14 June. — Left Verona in the morning, bending our 
steps homewards now, and reached Bergamo about 2\. 

* Native of England, son of a Neapolitan. 



122 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

The head waiter at Verona says business is miserably 
bad there at present, the past winter having been as 
unfortunate as could be. After dining al fresco at Bergamo 
(Hotel d'ltalia) we went up to the Boulevards, getting noble 
views on a splendid afternoon, and I proceeded to the 
Duomo, to inquire as to the ceremonies of Corpus Domini 
to be performed to-morrow. Since I was here last year, 
the exterior of a Baptistery, to be connected with the 
Cathedral, has been finished or nearly so. It is affirmed 
to be a copy of an ancient one somehow destroyed, with 
copies of the old external statues etc. which represent fine 
work. The interior is still in progress, to be finished in 
1867; various interesting 13th or 14th century bas-reliefs 
here, the originals, but much re-carved : also statues similarly 
treated, or some of them perhaps mere copies. The Morone, 
first picture to the left on entering the Duomo, is a very 
fine one. 

15 June. — Christina not being very well, M[amma] and 
I went in a carriage from the hotel to see the ceremonies 
of the Corpus Domini. . . . Went on to Lecco, Croce di 
Malta Hotel. M[amma] and I took a short turn by the 
Lake of Como after dinner, in a heavy air portending thunder, 
of which a few claps came without lightning ; and a little 
later lightning and thunder somewhat considerable, with 
rain. Some loud reverberating claps, but not equal to 
what one often hears in England. Before the storm some 
fine effects of washy broken light amid the hills. The 
waiter here says that the waiters, fruit-sellers, and some 
other such classes, in Milan, are all Swiss, — the Milanese 
not being steady or housekeeping enough for waiters. 
In '52 he and all the Ticinese were turned out of Lombardy 
by the Austrian Government in retaliation for some grudge, 
but were allowed to come back after a week or two. Engaged 
a fly from this hotel to Chiavenna for 55 francs. 

16 June. — Garibaldi was at this hotel twice in or about '59 
during his anti- Austrian campaigns : he was wont to dine 
in the courtyard on horseback. His name in the visitors' 
book got so continually begged of the landlord that he at 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 123 

last tore it out to keep it safe. It ran : " A richiesta d'una 
si graziosa signora non posso ricusare di scrivere il mio nome 
— G. Garibaldi " : * and indeed six years ago the landlady 
must have been decidedly pleasing. Went on to Chiavenna 
by the fly — a fine day with one moderate shower ; fine 
views over the lake from the embanked road along which 
one passes. Olives are very numerous for some distance 
beyond Lecco. The dust extremely troublesome during 
the latter two-thirds of the stage up to Colico, where we 
dined. On to Chiavenna, and left there again at ii P.M. 
by the Diligence, the prices demanded for vetture being 
much more than in proportion to what we had to pay on 
the St Gothard route. 

i^ June. — The lumour of dawn began to be apparent very 
early this morning — say about i \ : everything however con- 
tinued merely in the state of grey mist until the sun was just 
above the mountain-peaks, about a,\ — dim and spectral close 
by, and a blank beyond. The risen sun cleared away the 
mists very rapidly, and the early sunlight hours were beauti- 
fully clear and fine. Towards the summit of the Spliigen 
I walked, and thus about sunrise crossed the highest point, 
marked 21 17 metres above sea-level. The Rhine begins 
pretty soon ; but continues shallow, though sufficiently 
widespread, up to our stopping-place, Coire. . . . We 
passed Reichenau, the village where Louis Philippe acted as 
schoolmaster. Numberless grand views in coming down the 
mountain (which part of the journey I had done by night 
last year) ; but on the whole my impression continues that 
the St Gothard route is the richer and nobler. Coire, 
Hotel Lukmanier. . . . 

Sunday, 18 June. — Visited the Catholic Cathedral, and 
the pretty little churchyard annexed to it, whence the view 
(same as in yesterday's walk, only from the lower level) is 
delightful. I then took a walk ... to the hills above the 
city in the opposite direction from yesterday ; a steep 
walk, very pleasant, but the views more interrupted by 

* At the request of such a nice-looking lady, I cannot refuse to write 
my name. 



124 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

near pines, and less varied and fine, than in the previous 
route. Saw here a brown bird flying and soaring which 
I am almost sure must have been an eagle. A similar one 
yesterday not far from the Spliigen top. After dinner went 
with M[amma] and C[hristina] to the Rosenhligel and the 
hill-path beyond it, one of the noted points of view for the 
mountains all round, and extremely pleasant. This has 
been a cool and almost chilly day, cloudy for the most part 
and with a few slight showers, yet not other than fine on 
the whole. The most prominent mountain opposite the 
salle a inmiger at this hotel is named Calanda. 

19 June. — A most brilliant but still fresh day. Left 
Coire for Dachsen, whence (I am told) the Schaffhausen 
Falls are best seen. Passed the Lake of Wallenstadt, and 
one or two others up to Wallisellen, where we change 
carriages — the scenery at first being full of grand mountain- 
views, but for some little while before Wallisellen about 
the most level and ordinary (though still pleasing) which 
I remember in Switzerland. Another stoppage of about 
I \ hour at Winterthur, which we walked a little about : 
it is intensely neat, but has a somniferous influence, con- 
taining apparently nothing salient. On to Dachsen, the 
scenery continuing comparatively tame, though fine views 
of the Rhine just before Dachsen. Here got out of the 
rail, and took a carriage to see the Falls of Schaffhausen, 
and to go on to S[chaffhausen]. The Falls are wonderful 
for beauty and surprisingness : like the mountain-regions, 
the effect is not to be calculated or estimated beforehand, 
but must be experienced on the spot. At the same time, 
the mere arrangement of the rocks and broken bed for 
the river to fall over is very like what one sees represented, 
and comes so close up to one's " ideal " of such a scene 
as almost to look as if artificially laid out for the purpose. 
The fall is only some 80 feet altogether, and this broken 
up into two or three distinct plunges ; but the rush and volume 
of water are most mighty, and grow upon one's perception 
the lower and closer one comes to see them. A slight 
spray-rainbow ; and between the two main lines of torrent 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 125 

after the last tumble of the river is a nearly smooth space 
which I saw a boat navigating, whence tourists land on 
one of the rock-masses, though, to see the rush of water 
on either side, one would scarcely think this possible. One 
sees (ordinarily) the Falls from various points in the adjoin- 
ing hotel, and from its grounds laid out along one of the 
lateral rocks. At the two lowest points the spray sprinkles 
one freely. Red, blue, etc., glass-panes at one point to 
see the view through. Between the Falls and Schaffhausen 
one sees a glorious semicircle of snowy mountains all along 
one horizon — the Jungfrau among them on a clear morning, 
but not in the afternoons, though this is a very clear and 
bright one. The greater part of this snowy range I had 
taken for clouds until I used my spectacles. Schaffhausen, 
Hotel de la Couronne, a fine old roomy rambling building, 
mostly wood. The city is about the finest I have seen 
for Swiss-German quaintness — old roofs, chimneys, carvings, 
iron-work, etc. Two or three noticeable frescoed houses, 
especially those Zum Ritter (Ouintus Curtius) and Zum 
Goldenen Ochsen, 1579 and 1630 (?); both renovirt, but 
without by any means destroying their original character. 
Got here Vin du Glacier, a fine white wine not quite unlike 
Madeira (3 francs), and yesterday at Coire a red wine 
named Inferno, also very palatable. The porter says that 
Napoleon IIL bought more than 20,000 francs' worth of 
old furniture out of the Ritter-house. 

20 June. — To-day again is warm, though (like all the 
weather we have had anywhere) considerably below the 
oppressive range of Southern heat. Strolled with M[amma] 
about the principal Schaffhausen streets before leaving there 
at 10.20. Went on by the Bale-Freiburg-Strasburg route, 
all of which is new to me. The country between Schaff- 
hausen and Freiburg ceases to be mountainous, though at 
intervals one sees even snowy mountains at remote distances : 
it is undulating in gentle knolls and swells for the most 
part, but at times entirely flat unless for the remote 
mountains on the horizon. One sees the Rhine the ereater 
part of the way,, mostly green broken with other tints, 



126 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

seldom apparently of any great depth, but sometimes 
spreading out wide with islanded interspaces, which I 
suppose must be all overflowed in the wet season. We 
repassed the Schaffhausen Fall at Neuhausen : a little 
farther on, one of the most picturesque points of the route 
is Lauffenburg, where also, it seems, there is a Rhine-fall, 
but not visible to us. All, or next to all, this route is in 
the Grand Duchy of Baden, merely touching Switzerland 
at Schaffhausen and Bale. Having settled to go to Frei- 
burg rather than Mulhouse en route to Strasburg, we were 
under the impression that this would be the Swiss Freiburg, 
containing the richest-toned organ in the world ; but it 
turns out to be the Freiburg in the Breisgau, Baden, in the 
Black Forest district. A leading hotel at each place has 
the same name Zahringer Hof, and it was only after 
housing ourselves there that we found out our mistake. 
However, the route is correct, and the city well worth a 
visit. Went to the Cathedral, with a striking open-work 
spire ; the building, of light-tinted red sandstone with a 
goodish deal of yellow staining. A few parts Romanesque, 
earlier than Gothic, but chiefly an elaborate German-Gothic 
building, with great quantities of sculpture in the porch, 
saints in niches, grotesque gargoyles, etc. — also nearly 
filled with painted glass. The great majority of it is evid- 
ently in fact modern, as traceable in the method of leading, 
and in some wrong tints of purple, red, etc. ; but it must be 
a facsimile of the old designs, and is in many respects 
interesting, and vivid in general effect. Many gilt and 
other sculptures here — two in recesses, of at least life-size, 
TJie Last Supper and Christ in the Sepulchre, striking, — 
the latter really impressive. One peculiarity of the interior 
is that entire birch-trees are placed in pots along the nave- 
pillars. The service (vespers, I suppose) was all performed 
in German, as far as I could distinguish ; certainly the 
responses were so, in which a full congregation joined 
heartily. Opposite the south side of the Cathedral is a 
16th-century Gothic building which I infer to be the Town 
Hall, low and small but characteristic, with coloured statues 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 127 

of Charles V. and three other Emperors: opposite the 
West entrance an Inn, Zum Geist — must mean Heiliger 
Geist. Ascended the Ludwigshohe, a little behind the 
Cathedral, and had a very beautiful view — vines at my feet 
and my back. Several interesting details in the streets ; the 
pavement in several streets is particularly good — a mosaic 
of small greyish-blue stones with circles of a flame-wheel- 
like pattern, in this grey and white. A fine quiet sunset, 
more like (though fainter) the characteristic Italian sunset 
than we saw in Italy, where not even any approach to it 
occurred this tour. A most lovely piece of tapestry in the 
Cathedral, of two female saints with the Virgin and Child 
on a blue flowered ground, c. 1450-80; this on one side, 
and I presume the other sides are equally fine, but they were 
covered by some other drapery. 

21 June. — Went to the Ludwigskirche, which seems to 
have been at one time a fine ancient building, but is now 
miserably protestantized outside, and especially inside. 
Revisited the Cathedral, and find there is a tolerable quan- 
tity still of the original glass, at any rate in the right-hand 
aisle. The pulpit has a curious detail — near the foot of the 
stairs a sculptured half-figure of a man, c. 1500, looking 
out of an open lattice as it were, as if a distinguished 
member of the congregation. The choir shut on both our 
visits, but does not look as if it were more elaborate than 
the nave and aisles. A skin of a splendid blue-and-green 
lizard was found on the pavement outside the Cathedral, 
handsomer than any I ever saw alive, but we could learn 
nothing further about it. To the Franciscan Church, where 
is a skeleton (or perhaps model of one) seated, and richly 
draped in tissue, gilt, etc., as if representing King Death, 
or else the fate of earthly splendour. — On to Strasburg, 
through a somewhat tame though agreeable country. 
Hotel de la Maison Rouge at Strasburg, which is a fine 
old steep-roofed city, the roofs mostly of dark, nearly 
neutral-coloured tiles, and fine details here and there of 
carved-wood house-fronts etc. Statues to Kleber and 
Gutenberg. The Cathedral is a marvel of elaboration out- 



128 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

side, and many of the sculptures very clever and wonder- 
fully preserved, only a few of them appearing to have been 
re-carved : inside more stately than overcharged, without 
side-chapels or any paintings worth notice, but great 
splendour of painted windows, many of which are old, 
others new from the old designs, some (not very many) 
merely new. Style mostly Gothic, but some portions 
earlier. The wonderful old (renewed) clock is quite an 
edifice, and full of quaint interest. A boy-angel strikes 
each quarter : at the quarter a figure of Childhood repeats 
the stroke, and walks on, giving place to Youth ; then at the 
half-hour Youth strikes, Manhood at the three-quarters, 
Old Age at the full-quarters of the hour, and Death strikes 
the hour itself Scores of other astronomical etc. peculi- 
arities. The outside effect is scarcely equal to the extra- 
ordinary real height of the Cathedral spire, which reaches 
higher than the Great Pyramid, and a good deal higher 
than St Paul's. After dinner went up it to as high as one 
is allowed in lack of a special permission : view of the 
city fine, the landscape nothing very special. Storks 
nested here in the chimney-tops, the first time I remember 
ever seeing them, white with black wing-tips etc. ; one sees 
them flying occasionally, but not walking the streets as 
far as I observe. Some thirty nests, says a man in the 
Cathedral ; but I should have surmised from one to two 
hundred, calculating from the number we have ourselves 
noticed. Towards the end of August they migrate — it is 
believed to Egypt. Some in the country round, which are 
specially housed and fed, remain all the year round — those 
in the city cater for themselves on toads, frogs, and serpents. 
German is still the prevalent people's-language here, or 
French Germanized to an extreme in pronunciation. 

22 June. — Went out before breakfast, and passed the 
church which contains the monument to Marshal Saxe ; 
but it was closed, and looks rather as if it were mostly so. 
It is an old and massive building with some painted 
windows, and seems as if it ought to contain a goodish 
deal to look at. Went round the outside of the Cathedral 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 129 

(the apse not accessible) : elaborate sculpture of St Lawrence 
on the G7-idiron etc. on the north transept door ; the south 
transept is older, and less florid in architecture and sculp- 
ture, the principal subject being a remarkable treatment 
of The Judgment of Solomon. Went on to Chalons sur 
Marne ; the journey troubled with dust, but in other 
respects sufficiently agreeable. The country is thickly 
wooded beyond Sarrebourg, and a little further on there 
are sufficient risings and fallings to require several tunnels, 
one uncommonly long, but it is generally level. Vineyards 
tolerably, not as yet very, numerous. Attended vespers in 
the Cathedral, with some fine singing, but a loud stertorous 
organ. A very noble old Gothic building, the older parts 
Romanesque ; very simple though beautiful inside, and 
must have been recently renovated throughout, though I 
don't perceive any spoiling of the interior. A good deal 
of excellent stained glass, circa 1520, and some modern, 
but generally of a superior order : the outside sculpture 
miserably defaced, I suppose in the Revolution ; inside 
there is but little beyond fine capitals of very various 
design. Two modern iron steeples spoil the building con- 
siderably, but look as if they might be true to the original 
design. There is another fine old church, which we were 
too late to get into, and at least one other conspicuous 
church, apparently later, which we only saw in the distance. 
Hotel de la Cloche d'Or et du Palais Royal Reunis, fairly 
old-fashioned, close to the Cathedral. 

23 June. — Went again to the Cathedral, which contains 
also several very fine sepulchral slabs ; most of them how- 
ever being only portions of the original full-length figures. 
Similar, but less in number, in the other old Church, which 
is named St Alpin, and contains a good quantity of 16th- 
century glass, some of it almost colourless, being large 
figure-compositions drawn in light brown, and with a little 
yellow tinting. Various pictures, of which two or three 
are reasonable 16th-century works: the best is dated 1551, 
" Authore Perot Colet-Michel" (if I read it right) — a some- 
what Michelangclesque Christ as Man of Sorrows bearing 

I 



130 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

the reed, with the Donor and Donoress small, kneeling at 
the two sides, with the motto — 

O vrai Redempteur des humains 

Qui pour nous souffris passion, 
Je te requiers a jointes mains 

De mes peches remission. 

The expression and treatment are very quiet and pathetic, 
and in the kneeling figures portrait-like. The third church 
which we saw last night appears to form part of the build- 
ings of the College, and seems not to have any details 
of importance. Went on to Paris, through a country less 
flat and monotonous than I had supposed Champagne to be. 
The vineyards are generally or always on ranges of lowish 
rounded hills, which one sees on both hands for the greater 
part of the way, some growing lower than I remember them 
anywhere else, and none of them high. Passed Varennes, 
where Louis XVI. was stopped in his escape, and Meaux. 
Returned to the Hotel de Normandie in Paris. . . . 

24 June. — Went to the Japanese shop, 7 Boulevard des 
Capucines, and bought a fair number of the small engrav- 
ings on crape of which Whistler had a selection, but some 
of his best were not now to be had. The shopkeeper, who 
seems passably well-informed on the subject, says that a 
European, even were he to go to Japan, could not learn 
the process of colour-printing etc. etc. : all these matters 
are done in the City of the Mikado, and jealously guarded 
as secrets with which the Tycoon himself must not meddle. 
Hokusai's series consists of 30 parts, and no one in Europe 
yet possesses a perfect copy ; Tissot (I think) comes nearest, 
having 25. Hokusai died some hundred years ago (Madame 
Dessoye said forty *).... Entered St Eustache, and saw the 
earlier portion of a wedding. To the Jardin des Plantes, 
which we began exploring somewhat systematically in the 
animal section ; but, after looking at a fair number of 
animals, some rain came on, and a severe storm seemed 
to threaten (though it came to nothing after all), and we 
* The correct date, I understand, was 1849. 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1865 131 

left. To the Hotel de Cluny, of which I looked deliberately 
through about two-thirds. The series of tapestries, circa 
1520, of David and BatJisJieba, are most magnificent and 
admirable, not far from unrivalled ; and, in an upper room, 
still more beautiful though not quite so superb, a set of 
figures (I suppose mainly emblematic) on blue flowered 
etc. grounds with many birds, some twenty or thirty years 
earlier. Of the pictures, about the best is a small Giottesque 
one, two in one brace, dated 1408, of TJie Agony iti the 
Garden, and The Maries at the Empty Sepulchre. Entered 
for the first time the two Gothic churches in the Rue St 
Martin — St Merri, and St Nicolas aux Champs — both 
handsome well-built churches, without having anything 
very memorable, but some fair pictures of both the older 
and the neo-Catholic French schools. 

25 June. — To Notre Dame, where service was going on. 
The brand-newness of this once glorious building is something 
fearful to see and think of Every chapel is gutted, rasped, 
and set going anew in a mechanical style ; all pictures, old 
altar-furniture, etc., removed ; all the glass new, and not 
even so good as the best modern. I see nothing worth 
speaking of that looks tolerably unchanged, save the 
sculpture-series on the two sides of the choir, and a Gothic 
fresco of TJie Virgin and Child, with Denis and another 
Saint, and even these are not untouched. Outside, the 
right-hand portal similar ; all the rest renewed, and I 
suppose this too will follow. . . . 

26 June. — Returned home by the Dieppe and Newhaven 
route : day dullish, but a decidedly smooth passage, the 
whole travelling not occupying more than about twelve 
hours. 



87. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown, Grove 
Terrace, Highgate Road. 

[The picture in which " doggie is jealous " is the one 
termed Tlic Injanfs Repast.'] 



132 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

i6 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
lo June 1865. 

My dear Brown, — The enquiring mind in question was 
not Craven (much less " Clayton ") but Mitchell of Brad- 
ford, for whom I am doing the Venus. He was at mine 
yesterday, and expressed an intention of calling on you 
to-day. There had been some talk between him and me 
of his calling on you, once before when he was in town. 
He dwelt yesterday with peculiar satisfaction on that 
ancient production of yours in which " doggie is jealous " ; 
so I suppose a commission of that kind is the pleasurable 
result most likely to attend his visit. If I had known you 
had on hand the one you speak of, I would have smiled 
sardonically on his mentioning the other, and said that 
mad indeed must be the man who could not pick out at 
a glance the gem of the exhibition etc. I did try-on 
the Chaucer, but he seemed to prefer doggie. 

I thought of writing you yesterday of his probable 
visit, but shrank before the recollection of one or two false 
alarms of the kind. The fact is, my dear fellow, the mad 
distance at which you choose to live is probably ;^iooo 
out of your pocket every year. 

I suppose you will be this way sometimes in winding 
up your Piccadilly affairs. Look in, do. — Your 

D. G. R. 



88. — John Ruskin to Dante Rossetti. 

[I have to guess at the date and some other particulars 
of this letter. " Lizzie " must mean a portrait of Lizzie — 
perhaps the one named Regina Cordiuiii. Butterworth was 
the distinguished architect. " My Dante's Boat " appears 
to be the subject (from a celebrated sonnet by Dante) of 
the poet, with Beatrice and friends male and female, 
taking a pleasure-trip in a boat. Rossetti, it seems, was 



JOHN RUSKIN, 1865 133 

to paint this for Ruskin, as an equivalent for certain 
money advanced. One must suppose that, in this relation, 
the painting would be a water-colour of ordinary dimen- 
sions. I am satisfied that the subject was never painted 
in that form. My Brother made an oil-monochrome of it 
on a large scale, and intended to carry it out in full colour, 
but never did so : his name for the subject was The Boat 
of Love. The monochrome is now in the Public Gallery 
of Birmingham.] 

Denmark Hill. 
[1S65.] 

My dear Rossetti, — What a goose you are to go about 
listening to people's gossip about me ! I have never parted 
with any of your drawings but the Francesca. I leave the 
Golden Water and Passover at a Girls' School because I go 
there often, and enjoy them more than if they were 
hanging up here — because here I dwell on their faults of 
perspective and such-like. Am I so mean in money- 
matters that I should sell Lizzie ? You ought to have 
painted her better, and known me better. I'll give you 
her back any day that you're a good boy, but it will be a 
long while before that comes to pass. 

You scratched the eyes out of my Laiiiicelot, and I 
gave that to Butterworth — that was not my fault. If you 
could do my Dante's Boat for me instead of money, I 
should like it — but I don't believe you can. So do as 
you like when you like. — Ever yours affectionately, 

J. Ruskin. 



89. — John Ruskin to Dante Rossetti. 

[This letter (or the preceding one) marks the com- 
mencement of the unfortunate estrangement between 
Ruskin and Rossetti. I say estrangement, because, though 
a large residuum of mutual affection and regard remained, 



134 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

they from this time forward almost ceased to seek oppor- 
tunities for seeing one another. Ruskin had now seen, 
and (as he says) " disliked," the picture which Rossetti 
was painting ; properly termed Venus Verticordia, though 
Ruskin calls it " Flora." One might surmise that Rossetti 
did not quite like this misnomer, as indicating that his 
censor did not care to understand what the picture was 
really about. Millais's picture, which he mentions in the 
same connexion. The Romans leaving Britain, was exhibited 
in 1865. I am not certain what is the proper name for 
"the golden girl with black guitar."] 

Denmark Hill. 
[1865.] 

Dear Rossetti, — It is all right — do not come till you 
are quite happy in coming — but do not think / am 
changed. I like your old work as much as ever. I 
framed (only the other day) the golden girl with black 
guitar — and I admire all the old water - colours just as 
much as when they were first done. I admire Titian and 
Tintoret — and Angelico — ^just as I used to do, and for the 
same reasons. The change in you may be right — or 
towards right — but it is in you — not in me. It may not 
be change, but only the coming-out of a new element. 
But Millais might as well say I was changed because I 
detest the mode of painting the background and ground 
in his Roman soldier, while I praised and still praise 
Mariana and the Huguenot^ as you say that / was changed 
because I praised the cart-and-bridge picture and dislike 
the Flora. 

It is true that I am now wholly intolerant of what I 
once forgivingly disliked — bad perspective and such-like — 
for I look upon them as moral insolences and iniquities 
in any painter of average power ; but I am only more 
intensely now what I always was (since yon knew me), 
and am more intensely, in spite of perspective indignation, 
— Yours affectionately, 

J. Ruskin. 



JOHN RUSKIN, 1865 135 



90.— John Ruskin to Dante Rossetti. 

Denmark Hill. 
[1865.] 

My dear Rossetti, — It is very good and pretty of you 
to answer so. I have little time this morning, but will 
answer at once so far as regards what you say you wish 
me to tell you. 

There are two methods of laying oil-colour which can 
be proved right, each for its purposes — Van Eyck's (or 
Holbein's) and Titian's (or Correggio's) : one of them 
involving no display of power of hand, the other in- 
volving it essentially and as an element of its beauty. 
Which of these styles you adopt I do not care. I 
supposed, in old times, you were going to try to paint 
like that Van Eyck in the National Galler)/ with the man 
and woman and mirror. If you say, " No — I mean rather 
to paint like Correggio" — by all means, so much the 
better — but you are not on the way to Correggio. And 
you are, it seems, under the (for the present) fatal mis- 
take of thinking that you will ever learn to paint well 
by painting badly, i.e., coarsely. 

At present you lay your colour ill, and you will only 
learn, by doing so, to lay it worse. No great painter ever 
allowed himself, in the smallest touch, to paint ill, i.e., to 
daub or smear his paint. What he could not paint easily 
he would not paint at all — and gained gradual power by 
never in the smallest thing doing wrong. 

1. You may say you like coarse painting better than 
Correggio's, and that it is righter. To this I should make 
no answer — knowing answer to be vain. 

2. If you say you do not see the difference, again I 
only answer — I am sorry. Nothing more is to be said. 

3. If you say, " I see the difference and mean to do 
better, and am on the way to do better," I answer I know 
you are not on the way to do better, and I cannot bear 



136 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

the pain of seeing you at work as you are working now. 
But come back to me when you have found out your 
mistake — or (if you are right in your method) when you 
can do better. 

All this refers only to laying of paint. 

I have two distinct other counts against you : your 
method of study of chiaroscuro ; and your permission of 
modification of minor truths for sensational purposes. 

I will see what you say to this first count before I 
pass to the others. 

I am very glad, at all events, to understand you better 
than I did, in the grace and sweetness of your letters. — 
Ever affectionately yours, 

J; RUSKIN. 



91. — John Ruskin to Dante Rossetti. 

[It would appear that, between the dates of Ruskin's 
last letter and of this one, Rossetti must have reminded 
him by letter that he had, at some previous date, said by 
word of mouth that the flowers (roses and honeysuckles) 
in the Venus Verticordia were " wonderfully " painted. 
After replying on this point Ruskin proceeds to make 
some rather strong observations. The person whom he 
calls "a mere blackguard" was the highly-reputed photo- 
grapher Mr Downey, who took about this time some 
photographs of Rossetti. In one of these Ruskin posed 
along with Rossetti : but the photograph which he terms 
"a visible libel" was (I take it) a different one, repre- 
senting Ruskin (alone) seated, and leaning on a walking- 
stick. It went all over the country at the time ; and (if 
I may trust my own opinion) was a good though not an 
advantageous likeness.] 

Denmark Hh.l. 
[1865.] 
Dear Rossetti, — You know exactly as much about 
Correggio as I knew in the }'ear 1845, and feel exactly 



JOHN RUSKIN, 1865 137 

as I did then. I can't give you the results of twenty 
years' work upon him in a letter, so I say no more. 

I purposely joined him with Titian to poke you up. 
I purposely used the word " wonderfully " painted about 
those flowers. They were wonderful to me, in their 
realism ; awful — I can use no other word — in their coarse- 
ness : showing enormous power ; showing certain conditions 
of non - sentiment which underlie all you are doing — 
now. . . . 

You take upon you, for your own interest, to judge 
to whom I should and should not give or lend your draw- 
ings. In your interest only — and judging from no other 
person's sayings, but from my own sight — I tell you the 
people you associate with are ruining you. But remember 
I have personally some right to say this — for the entirely 
blameable introduction you gave to a mere blackguard, to 
me, has been the cause of such a visible libel upon me 
going about England as I hold worse than all the scandals 
and lies ever uttered about me. But, if there is anything 
in my saying this which you feel either cruel or insolent, 
again I ask your pardon. 

Come and see me now^ if you like. I have said all I 
wish to say, and can be open — which is all I need for my 
comfort. I have many things here you might like to see 
and talk over. — Ever affectionately yours, 

J. RUSKIN. 



92. — John Ruskin to Dante Rossetti. 

Denmark Hh.l. 
[1865.] 

Dear Rossetti, — I am also very thankful these letters 
have been written — we shall both care more for each other. 
Please come now the first fine evening — tea at seven. I 
will stay in till you do come, so you will be sure of me. 

Before I sec you, let me at once put an end to your 



138 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

calling me, whatever you may think (much more, any 
supposing that I think myself), a "great man." It is just 
because I honestly know I am not that I speak so posi- 
tively on other known things. I entirely scorn all my own 
capacities, except the sense of visible beauty, which is a 
useful gift — not a " greatness." But I have worked at cer- 
tain things which I know that I know, as I do spelling. 

I never said you were not in a position and at an 
age to know more of Correggio than I did in '45. 1 said 
simply you did know no more of him. But your practice 
of painting in a different manner has been dead against 
you — it is much to allow for you that you know as much 
of him as I did then. You hardly do, for I then knew 
something of his glorious system of fresco-colour — which 
you very visibly do not ; and had gathered a series of 
data and notes at the risk of my life on the rotten tiles 
of the Parma dome, with a view of " writing Correggio 
down." It was one of the few pieces of Providence I am 
thankful for in my past life that I did not then write a 
separate book against Correggio. I know exactly how 
you feel to him, and would no more dispute about it than 
I would with Gainsborough for knowing nothing about 
Albert Durer, or saying he, A.D., drew nothing but women 
with big bellies. 

But we won't have rows ; and, when you come, we'll 
look at things that we both like. You shall bar Parma, 
and I, Japan ; and we'll look at Titian, John Bellini, Albert 
Durer, and Edward Jones ; and I'll say no more about 
the red-eyed man and the phot[ograph]s. — Ever your 
affectionate 

J. RUSKIN. 



93. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[The picture by Brown bought in at ;^550 was the 
large painting named Work. By Rossetti there were five 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1865 139 

specimens in the Flint sale. Only one, Burd-alane, was an 
oil-picture, and to this he appears to refer.] 

i6 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
[26 June 1865.] 

My dear Brown, — I have been very anxious about your 
affairs since seeing you. . . . 

Gambart was here just now, and it seems things were 
desperate indeed at the Flint Sale. Brett's ^420 Chepstow 
Castle fetched ;^20 ; Wallis's Marston Moor came down 
from ;^250 to £6o\ and Hughes's Belle Dame from the 
same to ^^"30. So your being bought in at ;^550, and my 
^^"84 picture fetching £^1, were the triumphs of the sale. 
It seems Gambart has bought all the above except yours 
and mine. He went to 70, he says, for mine, but some 
one else bid 71. He sent an agent to buy the lot, and 
evidently rather chuckles, the Flint people having become 
"'betes 7ioires" with him. Indeed, I dare say the unlucky 
issue has been partly of his managing. 

Let me hear from you. — Ever your 

D. G. R. 



94. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[Rossetti's water-colours Nos. i, 2, and 3, are (I sup- 
pose) Hesterna Rosa, Auivj'a, and Washing Hands. I have 
no clear idea as to the two water-colours by Brown here 
in question ; possibly Elijah and the Widoiv's Son (now in 
South Kensington) may have been one of them. " The 
Opera-box design " was presumably a pretty little water- 
colour of Mrs Madox Brown in an opera-box. It was 
named At the Opera, or Lcs Huguenots ; and remained in 
Brown's possession (intentionally retained, it may be, as 
a family-portrait) up to his death. — Rossetti's F.S. was — 
it will be perceived — disregarded by Brown : neither of 
the men was punctilious in that respect.] 



140 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



1 6 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
28 June 1865. 

My dear Brown, — I was much relieved by some of the 
contents of your letter, which I have destroyed. 

To give you some data about Craven, I will tell you 
my transactions with him. 

(i) An extremely careful drawing with five figures 
(about 10 by 15 inches I should think) for which, by pre- 
vious agreement, I charged him 125 guineas, but let him 
understand thoroughly that the price would have been 
higher but for the engagement. 

(2) A drawing, 17 x 14^, of a woman (half-figure), less 
finished, for which he paid me 100 guineas. 

(3) A drawing just begun as companion to the above, 
same size, but which I shall do throughout from nature 
and which has two figures. For this I shall charge 150 
guineas. 

(4) A commission for a large drawing not yet begun 
nor price fixed. 

For No. I I received the price only after it was 
finished ! 

For No. 2 the whole price, by request, a day or two 
before sending it home. 

For No. 3 I have received on commencement ^50 on 
account. 

For No. 4 nothing as yet ! ! ! 

Craven is a very good paymaster and not a haggler at 
all — a grave, and (let us say in a whisper) rather stupid, 
enthusiast, of the inarticulate business-type, with a mystic 
reverence for the English Water-colour school, D. Cox, 
Hunt, etc. Besides this, I think a thoroughly good fellow. 
Not a very rich man, I should fancy. 

I think on the whole your best plan will be to ask for 
this drawing the same as for the other, viz. : 120 guineas, 
or say perhaps 125. Though with fewer figures than the 
one proposed, it is larger (is it not ?) and moreover a new 
thing instead of a duplicate. My 150-guinea one has two 



JOHN RUSKIN, 1865 141 

figures. Couldn't }'ou work up the Opera-box design ? . . . 
— Ever vours, 



D. G. R. 



P.S. — Please burn this after use. 



95. — John Ruskin to Dante Ros.setti. 

[This remarkable letter brought to a close the inter- 
change of views which had just now been going on between 
Ruskin and Rossetti : from this time forward they met 
hardly at all, and corresponded but very little. The letter 
bore at first a date of the day of the month — seemingly 
1 8 : but this was cancelled by the writer and a ? substi- 
tuted. Towards the middle of the letter Mr Ruskin speaks 
of " this affair of the drawings." I understand him to 
mean the question which Rossetti had raised as to the 
mode (see No. 88) in which Ruskin disposed of some of 
Rossetti's old water - colours ; or perhaps the point is the 
preceding suggestion that Rossetti might paint T//e Boat 
of Love, followed, as it probably was, by some demur on the 
artist's part, or else the point at the top of p. 143. — I am not 
wholly sure which was the "last picture" of a different 
painter of which Ruskin entertained so bad an opinion. 
I give the initial G, but this is not correct]. 

Denmark Hill. 
t July 1865. 

My dear Rossetti, — I am very grateful to you for this 
letter, and for the feelings it expresses towards me. I was 
not angry, and there was nothing in your note that 
needed your asking my pardon. You meant them — the 
first and second — just as rightly as this pretty third : and 
yet they conclusively showed me that we could not at 
present, nor for some time yet, be companions any more, 
though true friends, I hope, as ever. 

I am grateful for your love — but yet I do not want 



142 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

love. I have had boundless love from many people during 
my life. And in more than one case that love has been 
my greatest calamity — I have boundlessly suffered from it. 
But the thing, in any helpful degree, I have never been 
able to get, except from two women of whom I never see 
the only one I care for, and from Edward Jones, is 
" understanding," 

I am nearly sick of being loved — as of being hated — 
for my lovers understand me as little as my haters. I had 
rather in fact be disliked by a man who somewhat under- 
stood me than much loved by a man who understood 
nothing of me. 

Now I am at present out of health and irritable, and 
entirely resolved to make myself as comfortable as I can, 
and therefore to associate only with people who in some 
degree think of me as I think of myself. I Diay be wrong 
in saying I am this or that — but at present I can only 
live or speak with people who agree with me that I am 
this or that. And there are some things which I know I 
know or can do, just as well as a man knows he can ride 
or swim, or knows the facts of such and such a science. 

Now there are many things in which I always have 
acknowledged and shall acknowledge your superiority to 
me. I know it — as well as I know that St Paul's is higher 
than I am. There are other things in which I just as 
simply know that / am superior to you. 

Now in old times I did not care two straws whether 
you knew or acknowledged in what I was superior to you, 
or not. I don't mean in writing. You write, as you paint, 
better than I, I could never have written a stanza like 
you. But now (being, as I say, irritable and ill) I do care, 
and I will associate with no man who does not more or 
less accept my own estimate of myself. For instance, 
Brett told me, a year ago, that a statement of mine 
respecting a scientific matter (which I knew a fond before 
he was born) was " bosh." I told him in return he was a 
fool ; he left the house, and I will not see him again 
" until he is wiser." 



JOHN RUSKIN, 1865 143 

Now }'ou in the same manner tell me " the faults in 
your drawings are not greater than those I put up with 
in what is about me," and that one of my assistants is a 
" mistakenly transplanted carpenter." And I answer — not 
that you are a fool, because no man is that who can design 
as you can — but simply that you know 7wthing of me, nor 
of my knowledge — nor of my thoughts — nor of the sort of 
grasp of things I have in directions in which you are 
utterly powerless ; and that I do not choose any more to 
talk to you until you can recognize my superiorities as / 
can yours. 

And this recognition, observe, is not a matter of will or 
courtesy. You simply do not see certain characters in me, 
and cannot see them : still less could you (or should I ask 
you to) pretend to see them. A day may come when you 
will be able. Then — without apology — without restraint — 
merely as being different from what you are now — come 
back to me, and we will be as we used to be. It is not 
this affair of the drawings — not this sentence — but the 
ways and thoughts I have seen in you ever since I knew 
you, coupled with this change of health in myself, which 
render this necessary — complicated also by a change in 
your own methods of work with which I have no sympathy, 
and which renders it impossible for me to give you the 
kind of praise which would give you pleasure. 

There are some things in which I know your present 
work to be wrong : others in which I strongly feel it so, 
I cannot conquer the feeling, though I do not allege that 
as a proof of the wrongness. The points of knowledge I 
could not establish to you, any more than I could teach 
you mineralogy or botany, without some hard work on 
your part, in directions in which it is little likely you will 
ever give it. It is of course useless for me, under such 
circumstances, to talk to you. 

The one essential thing is that you should feel (and 
you will do me a bitter injustice if you do not feel this) 
that, though you cannot now refer to me as in any way 
helpful to you by expression of judgment to the public, 



144 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

my inability is no result of any offence taken with you. 
I would give much to see you doing as )'0U have done — 
and to be able to say what I once said. 

With respect to G., the relation between us is far more 
hopeless. His last picture is to me such an accursed and 
entirely damnable piece of work that I believe I have 
been from the beginning wrong in attributing any essential 
painter's power to him whatever, and that the high imita- 
tive results he used to obtain were merely accidental 
consequences of a slavish industry and intensely ambitious 
conscientiousness. I think so ill of it that I cannot write 
a word to him — though otherwise I should have felt it my 
duty to warn ///;//, before I spoke to others. I cannot, of 
course, allow such work to pass as representing what I 
used to praise, but I speak of it, as I do at present of 
yours, as little as I can. For you, there is all probability 
of recovery : of him I am hopeless. — Ever affectionately 
yours, 

J. RUSKIN. 



96. — Dante Rossetti to Walter Dunlop, Bingley. 

[Mr John Aldam Heaton was an acquaintance of Mr 
Dunlop, and had been in some way mixed up in the 
starting of the commission offered by the latter to Rossetti 
in 1 864 for The Magdalene at the Door of Simon the Pharisee. 
As Rossetti did not relish a letter which he had recently 
received from Mr Dunlop, he appears to have submitted 
it to Mr Heaton. I possess the letter in question from 
Mr Dunlop, and other letters from him, and also from 
Mr John Heugh, who was concerned in correspondence 
of a similar kind. Naturally I have no authority from 
these gentlemen or their representatives to print the letters, 
and so I leave them sub silentio. Rossetti resented them ; 
and I will take it upon me to say that other people in his 
position would have resented them as well. Mr Heaton, 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1865 145 

ill replying to my Brother, enclosed a letter, of his com- 
position, which he advised Rossetti to adopt and forward 
to Mr Dunlop. Rossetti did so, making (so far as I can 
judge) no change of any importance : this forms the letter 
signed by my Brother, next ensuing.] 

[Cheyne Walk. 
1865—? 7 August.] 

Sir, — I am at a loss to comprehend the full meaning 
of your letter. If a long time has elapsed since the subject of 
your commission to me was last discussed, I would suggest 
that the delay lies entirely at j/oi(r door. You gave me, 
after considerable correspondence and more than one lengthy 
interview, a definite commission for a picture at £2100, and 
how so important a matter could escape your memory even 
for a single week is quite a puzzle to me. 

You yourself mentioned more than once (both by word 
and by letter dated 20th May 1864) that you would wish 
to make me certain prepayments on account, in order that 
I might feel fully at liberty to give my whole attention to 
so serious a work ; and it is only this one item, out of all 
the details of the commission, which remains undecided : 
and the indecision is entirely your own. ... I beg to 
suggest that this business between you and me is as impor- 
tant and demands attention as much as any other. . . . 

If you wish the commission to be cancelled, the onus of 
such a proposition lies with you : and, as I am credibly 
informed that you have been a buyer quite recently of a 
large and costly picture, I cannot leave the consideration 
of ;/// picture to the chance of a call which, judging from 
the experience of the past season, might be indefinitely 
procrastinated. Begging your immediate attention, — I am 
yours, 

Dante G. Rossetti. 



K 



146 ilOSSETTI PAPERS 



97. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[" The infernal drawing " may, I think, have been Washhig 
Hands : see No. 94.] 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
8 August [1865]. 

My dear Brown, — I'm afraid I'm surprising you by the 
non-return of that £\o. The fact is, the infernal drawing 
has stuck to me till now, and I shall not get it away till 
the end of this week. I shall have to ask a much higher 
price. I make no doubt (I trust) of sending you the tin 
by next week, and hope I am not inconveniencing you. 

I must come one day and see what you are doing. 
Under the auspices of Heaton, who dictates letters for the 
purpose, I am stirring up the demon Dunlop, who shows 
a new horn, hoof, tusk, or tail, at every new step of the 
correspondence. H[eaton] advises me to go to law with 
him, but I don't think I shall. — Ever yours, 

D. G. Rossetti. 



98. — Dante Rossetti to Walter Dunlop. 

[16 Cheyne Walk.] 
21 August 1865. 

Sir, — I exceedingly regret that, so far, no reply has come 
to my letter of a fortnight ago, which would seem to have 
demanded a very prompt reply. 

You must surely feel that, if you now ignore, without 
motive or apology, a commission originated entirely by your- 
self, and for which I was induced to detail to you important 
projects of work, such conduct would be ungenerous as well as 
unjust ; and would moreover place me (quite apart from the 
question of interest) in a ridiculous position which I could 
not possibly accept. 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1865 147 

If a letter such as my last, written in a quiet and dis- 
passionate tone, upon a matter of business, cannot command 
attention, one seems cut off from any friendly discussion of 
the subject in hand ; and, though I am as averse as it is 
possible to be from any other mode of procedure, of course 
the time must come, in the continued absence of your reply, 
when another course becomes unavoidable. 

Trusting that no such time may arrive, — I am yours 
etc. 

D. G. R. 



99. — Dante Rossetti to John IIeugii, 
Tunbridge Wells. 

[While the unsatisfactory correspondence with Mr Dunlop 
was going on, another correspondence, with a friend of his, 
Mr Heugh, began. This proved as irritating and as useless 
as the other.] 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
I September 1865. 

Dear Sir, — I am now taking up again the water-colour 
drawing of Socrates taught to dance by Aspasia, being one of 
the two which you commissioned from me last year. As 
it will shortly be finished, will you kindly let me know 
whether, on its completion, it should be sent to the same 
address as this letter, or to any other. — Yours faithfully, 

D. G. Rossetti. 



100. — Dante Rossetti to John Heugh. 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
14 September 1865. 

Sir, — The elaborate incivility of your letter is as astonish- 
ing as it is unprovoked, and more cannot be said. As it 



148 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

seems, however, intended to indicate vaguely some attempt 
of mine to over-reach you in some way, I may as well be 
explicit in my answer, though I cannot manage to harangue 
you so glibly in the third person. 

In a very civil letter of yours, dated 14th July 1864, you 
say : " The two water-colour drawings I shall be happy to 
have on the terms you mention in your note." These were 
the Socrates, and a sacred subject not specified. Of my note, 
alluded to by you above, I kept no copy, never having been 
led till lately to think such caution necessary ; but, if 
anything was said, by you or me, as to time of delivery for 
either drawing, by word or by writing, I am more mistaken 
than my good memory is wont to be. No doubt I said that 
the Socrates could be soon finished, meaning (aiid probably 
expressing) that, luhen I took it in hand again, it would not 
take long to complete. That wheji to be, of course, when 
other work permitted me to do so with satisfaction to myself 
and without hurry. The work would be sure to gain by this, 
and consequently the purchaser also. I have done since, at 
different pauses from larger works, several water-colours 
requiring less study than the Socrates ; and certainly this 
might have been taken up and rapidly executed at any one 
of the moments alluded to, sometimes more profitably in 
a money-sense than what I did do. I have always thought 
of it at such times ; but have always refrained from then 
resuming it, from a wish to do my best for you at a more 
favourable moment. I am thus explicit in justice to myself, 
in case the only probable explanation of the delay should 
really have failed to occur to you. 

Your note of admiration (!), on the enormity of my 
neither writing to you since nor resuming the drawing till 
now, is certainly provocative of a smile, I assure you my 
time is fully and importantly occupied, and there could be 
nothing to write about till I could announce the approaching 
completion of one of the two drawings. 

When you commissioned these drawings, I naturally 
supposed you did so because you liked and wished to possess 
my work, in which case the delay of a year could not well 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1865 149 

alter sucli feeling. You could scarcely have supposed that 
all other work would be at once postponed to this for you ; 
nor can you surely imagine that, should I now choose to 
relinquish these distinct commissions from a repugnance to 
working for a capricious and uncivil person, my work will 
therefore go a-begging ; though the foolish judicial tone of 
your letter would seem to indicate a notion that }'ou can 
do much as you like with me. 

I fear I now find that you sought, of your own accord, 
an introduction to one not your inferior in any way except 
so far as your money can make him so (which it cannot, 
either socially or mentally), and for whose powers you 
professed esteem — with no intention to consider his interests 
or feelings further than as your money (so you thought) 
gave your caprice the power to do so or not to do so. 

If this be thus, I am sorry, not for myself, to whom no 
conduct founded on such views can matter, and to whom 
its results in this instance are fortunately unimportant ; but 
only for your years which have brought you neither right 
judgment nor good taste. 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 



loi. — Dante Rossetti to John Heugh. 

i6 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
1 8 September 1865. 

Sir, — There is nothing of a kind to surprise me in your 
present letter ; for not a word of it is true. 

Enough for me that, in spite of your solemn tone, you 
know as well as I do that you are untruthful. 

D. G. Rossetti. 



150 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



I02. — Dante Rossetti to Walter Dunlop. 

[This letter, undated, is extant in Rossetti's hand- 
writing. I am not quite clear whether it was sent off or not. 
It may however have been sent off, so as to dispose of a note 
from Mr Dunlop dated 4th August, prior to the further 
action taken by my Brother, as shown in his letters of 21st 
September to Mr Heaton, and of 9th November to Mr 
Dunlop.] 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
[? September 1865.] 

Dear Sir, — Knowing that the commission I received 
from you was a definite one, I was surprised some time ago 
when you so soon ceased to answer necessary letters. How- 
ever, I thought you might mean to call when in town, as 
a readier course ; but you have now explained yourself 
to me. 

I have never thought it necessary to be on my guard 
towards those who have wished to possess my works, as 
their spontaneous wish did not seem likely to be followed by 
any but gentlemanly conduct ; and I have always met with 
such till now. In your opposite case, be sure I have no 
thought of continuing the relation, or of allowing you to 
do so. So do not come here again, — if indeed your express- 
ing the intention can show that you entertain it. — Yours, 

D. G. ROSSETTL 



103. — Dante Rossetti to Aldam Heaton. 

[This must have been drawn up to figure as an osten- 
sible business-letter ; for it enters into some particulars of 
which Mr Heaton was already perfectly well aware : see 
No. 96.] 



DANTE ROSSRTTI, 1865 151 

1 6 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
21 September 1865. 

My dear Heaton, — It is now more than a year since 
the correspondence in which you were kindly involved 
between me and Mr Dunlop respecting his commission to 
me for the picture of the SJiip of Love came to a stand- 
still, owing to his steadily ignoring my letters on the 
subject of the stipulated preliminaries ; although he had 
agreed to these with alacrity, and asserted his own pre- 
ference for such arrangement, at the outset. 

Since then, as you may have gathered, I had let the 
matter rest for a considerable while, not having leisure to 
give any more attention at the time to so dogged a 
recusant, and still thinking that he might be intending to 
call for apology and renewal of the subject, when in town 
during the Exhibition-months. Finding however that he 
never did so, I wrote him a short note at the beginning 
of August last, asking him again what he proposed to do 
in the matter. To this he gave a reply of the most 
evasive kind, saying that the matter had almost escaped 
his memory through press of more important things ; that 
in fact he had ceased to think of it ; but that he would 
call when an opportunity occurred to see what I was 
" doing or projecting." To this surprising note I answered 
temperately, putting his duty in the case before him ; and 
since then, receiving no reply, have written him two or 
three further letters, all hitherto unanswered. The last 
must have been about a fortnight ago ; and in it I told 
him that, in the event of his continued silence, my only 
possible recourse (though of an inexpressibly distasteful 
kind) would be to law (I had already proposed arbitration 
by friends ;) but that, before taking such a step, I should 
be compelled to lay the details of the matter before you, 
as in the event of such proceedings I should have unavoid- 
ably to call you as a witness. Thus I am now obliged to 
write to you. 

I need not comment on the nature of Mr D[unlop]'s 
conduct in this matter, as I feel sure you will see it as 



152 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

strongly as I do. Nevertheless it is most unwillingly that 
I renew the subject to you with a direct request for 
friendly offices and a possible prospect of its giving you 
still further trouble ; but to do so seemed the only remain- 
ing chance of avoiding such necessity, as a communication 
from you might possibly still bring him to a sense of his 
true position in the matter. I am determined not to give 
his unworthy tactics the advantage of tiring me out. 

However, this is not all. You will remember that Mr 
Heugh, at the same time with Mr Dunlop, commissioned 
me also for work ; viz., for two water-colour drawings, one 
of a subject of Socrates taught to dance by Aspasia, which 
he saw begun, and the other to be a scriptural subject not 
specified. At the beginning of the present month I wrote 
to him saying that I was now resuming the Socrates, 
which would soon be finished, and asking him to what 
address it should then be sent. I send you his incredibly 
aggressive reply after a fortnight ; to which I rejoined, not 
violently, I assure you, though of course with befitting 
severity on such conduct. My rejoinder produced a second 
letter, which I also send you, and have answered as was 
right. You will see that in this last letter he makes use 
of your name in a sense for which I am sure you will not 
thank him, 

I send you Heugh's letters because they are at hand, 
Dunlop's of last and this year I have also. 

These people's conduct in getting introduced to me, 
apparently now only for the purpose of insulting and 
injuring me, is not merely unjustifiable but quite inexplic- 
able. I can make nothing of it, so must lay the subject 
before you, with due apology for troubling you about it, 
and with a request for your suggestions. — Ever sincerely 

yours, 

D, G. ROSSETTI. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1805 153 



104. — Dante Rossetti to Walter DuNLor. 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
9 November 1865. 

Sir, — My letters to you a short time ago were written 
purely as a duty to myself, and that certainly not an agree- 
able one. 

However, the scale of several commissions I have just 
now received, as well as the prices which some of my late 
pictures have brought in the market, are so much beyond 
the rate at which I had agreed to paint the Ship of Love for 
you that, had you not proved a recusant to your bargain, I 
should now have found myself very seriously a loser by 
fulfilling it. 

It is therefore needless to say that it cannot now be worth 
my while, in order to keep you to your word by law, to 
bestow time which is more valuable even in a money-sense 
than the success of such suit could make it ; not to speak of 
the higher ground on which my time should be devoted to 
my work only. 

I know that there are those who applaud themselves when 
misconduct bears them no worse fruit than the expression of 
deserved contempt. To such species of success I make you 
welcome. 

D. G. Rossetti. 



105. — William Rossetti — A Spiritual (?) Seance 

(No. I). 

[I never paid much attention to what is called Spirit- 
ualism ; and have a general impression that — whatever 
may be the amount of truth in it, or the amount of imposture 
— any great addiction to its phenomena tends to weaken 
rather than fortify the mind. Still I saw soiuethiJig of 
spiritualism. The first instance of any importance seems to 
have been the one which is here recorded ; and after this 



151 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

date I continued recording any other instances to which I 
was a party. I sometimes speak of a " spirit " ; but this word 
is used by me only as a convenient laconism, as I never 
committed myself to any definite belief in the professed 
spiritual origin of what transpired. My account goes on 
to 14th August 1868, and includes twenty seances — mostly in 
private, and without any professional or recognized medium. 
After August 1868 I seem to have seen little or nothing 
of these manifestations : at any rate, I kept no further record. 
I shall give in the sequel three other notices, besides the 
one immediately ensuing. — Captain Ruxton has been men- 
tioned by me elsewhere : he was a gentleman of refinement 
and intelligence, rather disposed perhaps to a belief in the 
marvellous, but (I should say) far from being a perfectly 
easy man to dupe. — The late John Cross, the artist who 
painted the fine picture in the Houses of Parliament, The 
Deathbed of RicJiard Cceitr de Liofi, has also been mentioned 
elsewhere.] 

Saturday, ii Noveinber 1865. (Recorded 15 Novembei-). — 
Ruxton, with whom I lunched, enquired whether I would 
like him and me to go together to Mrs Marshall, the washer- 
woman medium, late of Holborn, now at 7 Bristol Gardens, 
Maida Hill. I agreed, and, within some i^ hour thereafter, 
we went, arriving towards 4^. No previous arrangement, 
as far as I know or believe : my name not asked, nor any 
other questions. I had never before seen Mrs M[arshall] 
or the others of her party. When we entered (first-floor 
room) there were present Mrs Marshall, Mrs Marshall junior, 
a third woman, Marshall, and (either now or afterwards, but 
only for a very short while altogether) a girl some ten years 
of age. Mrs M[arshall] junior and the third woman were 
laughing boisterously over (as they told us) the way in which 
Mrs M[arshall] junior's hand followed this third woman 
about, as under magnetic attraction. R[uxton] and I at 
once sat down, ready to begin. The third woman left. The 
table was a round one, of considerable size and heavyish 
make. Room lighted artificially just as fully as any ordinary 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 18G5 155 

sitting-room. R[uxton] took a stamped alphabet, and a 
pencil to touch the letters. Mrs M[arshall] and Mrs 
M[arshall] junior, and for the first two or three questions only 
the little girl, at the table, with hands on (Mrs M[arshall] 
one hand only) : M[arshall] was mostly about the room, but 
away from the table. 

R\7ixton\ — Is there any spirit present ? — Yes. — One who 
would communicate with me ? — No. — With this other gentle- 
man ? — Yes. — The answers were very generally given by 
immediate decisive raps, which mostly sounded to me as on 
underside of the table. Now and then there were tilts and 
movements of the table, which at least twice rose entirely 
off the ground, and returned thereto at once : on one of these 
occasions I was looking under the table, but saw no physical 
or mechanical motive power. I now took the alphabet and 
pencil, and R[uxton] wrote down the answers. 

Myself. — Who are you ? — John Cross. (This name was 
not in the least in my mind, and had even spelt itself out up 
to " Cros " before I guessed who it could be.) I asked various 
questions, several of them mentally only (no words spoken 
whatever in these), to which answers came either inapplicable 
or wrong. The chief of these were as follows : — How much 
did I subscribe to the fund for your family ? A[nswer]. At 
first inapplicable : afterwards, by touching ciphers written by 
me at the moment, 3 ; next, rapped out by that number of 
raps, 28. (10 would have been correct). — What was the 
peculiarity affecting one of your children which I am now 
thinking of (mental query). A[nswer]. Lame (should have 
been. Idiotic). — What profession were you of? Surgeon, 
dentist, etc., etc., painter, physician ? (this was spoken by 
me). A[nswer] came at " Physician." 

So far as specimens of the wrong answers. The following 
were correct : — 

Query (mental). What was the name of your best 
picture? — Richard. (I was not expecting the word Richard, 
but rather Coeur de Lion ; therefore did not dwell on the 
initial R., but — if anything, which however I don't think — it 
would have been C.) Will you give me a spontaneous 



156 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

message? — Yes. — What? — My life was one of trial. — What 
was the name of a certain sculptor intimate with you and 
me ? — Thomas Wo(olner : I was so satisfied at IVo that I 
left off with the alphabet). * 

During some of the unsuccessful experiments we had all 
four moved to a smaller table, whereat we thereafter remained. 
I asked for raps to come in particular spots — as at the back 
of my chair and on my foot. None such came, though the 
answer that he would rap my foot was obtained. . . . 

After the answer " Woolner," I proposed that R[uxton] 
should ask for communications. He therefore took the 
alphabet, and I wrote-down the letters rapped out. 

R[/Lvfofi]. — Is any person present, ready to communicate 
with me? — Yes. — Who? — M. Minto. (This was the name 
of his deceased Mother-in-law, a name known to me afore- 
time, but which I had been lately trying to remember and 
had wholly failed). — Will you give a message ? — Yes. — What ? 
— Mary (name of Mrs Ruxton) should see my son. — Where 
is he ? — Brighton. — What street ? — Charles. — What is his 
name? — Jarvis. (All these details were unknown to me, 
but R[uxton] informed me afterwards they are correct : 
Jarvis had till a day or two preceding been at Southampton). 
— Will you send a certain other spirit I want to communicate 
with? — Yes. — Here followed receding raps, which, Mrs 
M[arshall] said, showed that the M. Minto spirit was going 
away to bring the other one. My time was now up, and I 
went. On following day R[uxton] informed me that the 
spirit he had been expecting (name, I think, Monckton) had 
purported to come next. 

One message given to me by Cross was " You are a 
mertdium." I remember no other mis-spelling. 

Neither Mrs M[arshall] nor (more especially) Mrs 
M[arshall] junior inspires confidence by appearance. How- 
ever, they asked no fishing questions whatever, nor did I 
detect either in any deception : and it was one of them who 
suggested that my questions should be mental only, rather 
than spoken. I observed on the walls some coloured draw- 
' And silly it was to do so. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1865 157 

ings, evidently so-called spirit-drawings — one of a devil : but 
I paid very little attention to them. 



io6. — William Rossetti — A Spiritual Seance (No. 2.) 

[Mr Spencer Boyd (of Penkill Castle, Aryshire), a Brother 
of Miss Alice Boyd, had died very suddenly in the house of 
Mr Bell Scott, which was in Elgin (not Elden) Road, London. 
Thomas Sibson was a friend of Scott's at a much earlier 
period of life ; an artist who produced several able and 
remarkable etchings. There was a series of these, very 
familiar to my Brother and myself towards 1842, illustrating 
Dickens's Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge : at a much 
later date my copy of this series was so much admired by 
Burne-Jones that I presented it to him. — The case of 
Charlotte Winsor was some criminal case which excited much 
interest in 1865: she was, I think, a "Baby-farmer," con- 
victed of murder, and finally hanged.] 

Saturday, 25 November [1865]. — Mrs Marshall's as before 
—Scott and myself; Mrs M[arshall] and Mrs M[arshall] 
junior, and scarcely ever Marshall. Also four gentlemen 
whom on entering we found at a seance (two of these seemed 
acquaintances) ; and late in our seance three other gentlemen, 
some at any rate obvious believers, came in. (Recorded 28 
to 30 November.) 

We were asked to join the four at the table, with Mrs 
M[arshall] junior : Mrs M[arshall] sitting away from the 
table : we did so. Time towards 3, therefore daylight for 
an hour or so : afterwards full gaslight. Scott asked whether 
he might examine the table (the heavy round one). Allowed ; 
and he and I looked at it, I feeling that there was not a 
hollow at the pillar of the table up which a stick could be 
passed to rap. Answers generally by loud immediate raps : 
some sharp movements and starts of the table also. At first 
nothing very noticeable came, and I asked for Mrs M[arshall] 
to sit at the table, which she did, when the power seemed at 



158 llOSSET'ri PAPERS 

once considerably increased. Various mistakes and mulls 
however from time to time : one was that a spirit communi- 
cating with me professed to be " Mother." 

Scott (till now a rejector of all spiritualistic evidence) 
had told m.e as we went up in the cab (no pre-arrangement 
whatever with Mrs Marshall for our visit) that he would fix 
upon Boyd and Sibson to communicate with if possible. 
At a tolerably early stage of the seance he said, " I have 
a certain friend of mine in my mind : is he present ? " — 
(Raps) Yes. — What was your Christian name ? — Spirit. — 
Try again. — Sa. — Try for the surname. — Boyd. — Christian 
name ? — Spencer. — You died in my house : what is the 
name of the street ? — Elden Road. — How long ago ? — One 
year (just about ten months is, I believe, correct). — Do you 
know where your sister is ? — Yes. — Where ? — Sudvow. 
S[cott] says Penkill is correct, and he can make nothing of 
Sudvow). — What county ? (No correct answer). — What is 
her Christian name ? — Ca. — At this S[cott] left off, consider- 
ing it a blunder, as he was thinking of the Miss Alice Boyd : 
since then he writes me there is a half-sister named 
Catherine. The correctness, so far as it went, of the answers 
staggered S[cott] hugely. I asked the Boyd spirit, " Did 
you know me ? " Two raps in reply, which reckons as 
meaning not exactly yes nor no. — Did you ever see me ? — 
No. Both answers must be considered correct, as he must 
undoubtedly have often heard something about me, but 
never met me. 

Another experiment made by S[cott] was this. He wrote 
on a paper, kept invisible, Thomas Sibson, and asked whether 
the communicating spirit (I think it was still Boyd) could 
spell it out. " Sis " was obtained by raps, but nothing 
nearer than that. Then Mrs M[arshall] junior suggested 
that Scott should write out several Christian and surnames, 
including the right ones. He did so, and the answers came 
at Thomas and Sibson. A just similar experiment with the 
names David and Scott.* 

* /.f., David Scott, the painter, deceased Brother of William 
Bell Scott. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1865 159 

To me the following happened. I said : " Is there any 
spirit present who knew me?" — Yes. — Name? — Hewi. I 
then said : " That is no name at all ; and, even had you 
gone on to ' Hewit ' or any such name, I never knew a 
person so named." One of the gentlemen present said : 
" There was a New Zealand Chief of the name of Hewi : 
one of those who used to go about England exhibiting." 
I asked the Spirit : Were you that Chief? — Yes. — Did 
you ever see me? — Yes. — Was it at Newcastle-on-Tyne ? — 
Yes. — How long ago ? three years ? — No. — One ? — No. — 
Two ? — Yes. — Were you black-complexioned ? — No. — All 
this is right, on the assumption that the spirit really was 
one of the exhibiting New-Zealanders. 

One of the gentlemen wrote unseen a name on a paper, 
and got it spelled out by raps, Richard Willims (should 
have been Williams). At another time he said : " Is there 
a spirit who will communicate with me ? " — Yes. — Who ? — 
Uncle John. — He said : " I had no uncle of that name." 
I then said : " Is it my Uncle John ? " — Yes. I asked for the 
surname, by the alphabet, but could not get it. Then : Is 
it an English surname? — No. — Foreign? — Yes. — Spanish, 
German, etc., etc., Italian ? — Yes. — I then called over five 
or six Italian names, coming to Polidori. — Yes. — Will you 
tell me truly how you died ? — Yes. — How ? — Killed. — Who 
killed you ? — I. — There was a celebrated poet with whom 
you were connected : what was his name ? — Bro. This was 
twice repeated, or something close to it the second time. 
At a third attempt, " Byron." — There was a certain book 
you wrote, attributed to Byron : can you give me its title ? — 
Yes. — I tried to get this title [viz. : TJie Vai/ipyre] several 
times, but wholly failed. — Are you happy? — Two raps, 
meaning not exactly. 

One of the gentlemen present afterwards consulted the 
table, in order to obtain advice and information on some 
matters wherein he was interested. The answers came 
apposite, and he seemed to suppose them probably valid. 

These were the chief incidents of our seance (six persons 
besides the Marshalis): the last message to us being, " We 



160 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

shall say no more." The three persons who had come in 
later then took possession of the table, with Mrs M[arshall] 
junior, we other six being about the room, also Mrs 
M[arshall] senior, but not interfering in the table-perform- 
ances. One of the enquirers, evidently an American, tried to 
get into communication with a certain friend of his killed 
in the American War, Theodore (something), but failed. 
Another asked for a certain deceased cousin of his : Name ? — 
Roland Williams. — Where are you buried ? what county ? — 
Anglesea. — Name of the place ? — Cerrigceinwen. — These and 
some other answers in the same connexion he affirmed to be 
true. 

During part of these performances S[cott] asked whether 
he might look under the table. He did so, kneeling on the 
ground with his head under the table-surface, and listening 
as well as looking for the source of the knocks. He thought 
they sounded more as if on the floor (/.<?., made on the ceiling 
of the room below) than on the table. Whilst he was thus 
looking, and the people obtaining messages through the 
table, came this message, " Mind your wig." They all 
laughed, not seeing any applicability in the message : S[cott] 
alone guessed it might be meant for him,* and so explained 
it to the others. Meanwhile Mrs M[arshall] senior was talk- 
ing to some of us, myself included, about her experiences — 
very vulgarly, and (as I should say so far as this alone is 
concerned) stupidly and impostor-like. She is a Southcottian 
(not so Mrs M[arshall] junior) ; has had visions and other 
spiritual experiences all her life : sees ghosts : they are 
generally like the shadows of living people, only white. Saw 
the ghost, shortly after his death, of Smith, editor of The 
Family Herald. He entered her room in his usual costume, 
and sat close beside her on a chair. She looked hard at 
him, to be sure he should not evade without her knowing it ; 
but, after he had sat (some minutes, I think), he was all at 
once gone. She can prophesy ; sees visions in the streets 
at times. I asked her whether she could prophesy events 
which become of public notoriety, such as the American War 
* He wore a wig. 



PROFESSOR NORTON, 1865 161 

or the death of Lord Palmerston : — Yes, when the " sperrit " 
is on her. — Well, can she now prophesy whether the Judges 
will decide for or against Charlotte Winsor? — She could 
under the fitting conditions. — Can she prophesy whether 
England and the United States will go to war ? — Yes, they 
will go to war " in course of time " (or some similar vague 
expression). There shall soon be "a great outpouring of 
the sperrit." I asked: "In what way? Will, for instance, 
miraculous cures be effected, such as in the New Testament ? " 
— Yes. — Towards this part of the conversation she assumed 
a sort of vaticinatoryy}/r(9r, talked with an air of excitement, 
fixing me with her eyes, but merely some of the common- 
place semi-biblical phrases about the outpouring of the 
spirit. I took it cool, and the fit soon passed. 

I have omitted to state that one of the first things done 
after we entered was that I asked : " Will the spirit who 
communicated with me here some days ago do so again ? " — 
Yes. — Name? Something was obtained approaching to 
Charles, not to John Cross, and nothing came of this 
attempt. 

Soon before we departed, Mrs M[arshall] junior asked 
me whether I would like to obtain some raps in the door of 
the room, which opens on to the landing and staircase. She, 
another man, and I, went to the door, inside, placing our 
hands upon it : Scott went outside, and did the like. Many 
loud raps or thumps ensued, coming apparently as if from 
without to me within, and as if from within to S[cott] with- 
out. They appeared more or less distinctly, sometimes very 
distinctly, to be actually in or on the door. S[cott] next 
came in, and so put up his hand, and another man went out- 
side : result to correspond. Mrs M[arshall] junior says two 
raps mean " doubtful," and five a demand for the alphabet. 



107. — Professor Norton to William Rossettl 

[As I took a very intense interest in the American War 
of Secession — siding wholly with the Northern States, as 

L 



1G2 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

the upholders of national unity, and of the restriction, and 
finally the abolition, of slavery, and deploring the pro- 
slavery frenzy which had seized hold of the great majority 
of Englishmen of the so-called educated classes — I reproduce 
with some sense of satisfaction this reference by Professor 
Norton to an article which I had written, named EtiglisJi 
Opinioti on the American War. It appeared, as here indi- 
cated, in The Atlantic Mojithly.'] 

Cambridge [Massachusetts]. 
I December 1865. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — . . . Your paper on English Opifiion 
concerning American affairs during the Rebellion is exceed- 
ingly interesting. It is, I think, the most candid statement 
and the ablest presentation of the subject which has been 
made, and I regret that its form prevents its publication in 
the North American Review. All the papers in the Review 
are impersonal in their form, after the manner of those in 
the chief English Reviews. The editorial " we " is preserved 
throughout, and the Review is regarded as a distinct, however 
fictitious, entity. This being the case, I have thought best 
to offer your paper for publication to the Editor of The 
Atla7itic Monthly. He has gladly accepted it, and it will 
appear, I believe, in the next number. I have undertaken 
to revise the proof of it, so that I trust it will appear with- 
out any serious typographical blunders. The Atlantic has so 
large a circulation that your article will be read much more 
widely than if it were published in the North American. . . . — 
Very sincerely yours, 

Charles Eliot Norton. 



108.— James Smetham to Dante Rossettl 

[Mr Smetham, a painter by profession, was a peculiarly 
devout Christian — a Methodist. Rossetti had known some- 
thing of him in early years, and more especially since 1863. 



JAMES SMETHAM, 1865 163 

Smetham's mind give way at last under the stress of religious 
ideas, and he died several years ago. A volume of his letters 
was published in 1892, and secured, as it deserved, a consider- 
able amount of attention. These letters were edited by 
Mr William Davies (author of TJie Pilgriviage of the Tiber 
etc.), who is mentioned in the ensuing extract as " W.D." 
The extract comes, not from a letter' in the ordinary sense, 
but from some scrappy leaves of small memorandum-paper 
stitched together.] 

[Stoke-Newington]. 
8 atid 9 December 1865. 

I generally have had for some years past a set of these 
" Ventilators " (as W. D. called them) going, and so managed 
to find an outlet for every form of feeling and thought. A 
good part of them were written on tops of omnibuses, in rail- 
way-trains, at country-inns, or wherever there was a spare 
twenty minutes. Sometimes, when I wanted to think out 
any life-project, I have spent days in seeing to the end of 
it — choosing this rather than journalizing because thought 
stowed up in Diaries gets foetid and affected and dangerous. 
. . . No agreement of mutuality. My friends reply some- 
times — either in conversation, by letter or occasional Venti- 
lator — but scarce any of them is fond enough of the labour 
of writing to do the same thing, and I don't expect it. 
Sometimes a cannonade of Ventilators has followed day 
after day till a thing has been demolished. Then a silence 
of weeks — months — a year or two, . . . 

As you have kindly desired something less formal after — 
as you say — ten years' acquaintance, and as I find everybody 
calling you Gabriel, I must take the liberty of falling into 
the same rut. . . . 

There have been only two men concerned directly in 
Art whom I cared much to know a priori — and I have known 
them both for ten and eleven years. . . . But these two I 
was drawn to love for their own sake — Ruskin by his works, 
and D. G. R. by his sum-total. And that not because the 
two R.'s were very clever and influential (though of course, 



164 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

to a despicable fallen son of the first Adam, there is a detest- 
able magnetism in these things). ... As to one of the R's, 
I only pretend to a partial personal acquaintance. He is too 
well-off — too well-known — too encumbered with friends — 
too phosphoric — to look very long in one direction ; and I 
am entirely content with things as they stand — I won't bore 
him. But the other has many things in the same line as 
myself, which makes me thankful for some awakening inter- 
course on Art — of which (for reasons) I have for twenty years 
voluntarily debarred myself . . . My dear Gabriel, if you 
have got any kick in you, pray kick out soon, and don't let us 
get into a mess. I'm quite sure you are all right in respect 
to generosity and nobleness, but I'm not so sure that I am — 
and that you wouldn't repent a closer intercourse. 

I wouldn't speak of what I may call Methodist peculiari- 
ties, but that I already see that in your circle there will be a 
never-ceasing collision — though tacit — on daily habits. . . . 



109. — Ernest Gambart to Dante Rossetti. 

[The picture here mentioned must be TJie Blue Bower. 
Mr Gambart speaks of, and denies, a selling-price of 1600 
guineas ; my Brother had been told 1500. Mr Gambart had, 
at any rate, made a handsome profit on this picture : he 
bought it of Rossetti for ^210, and he admitted having sold 
it for ;^500. — The single head for which Rossetti now asked 
£^2.<) is uncertain to me: possibly Moniin Vamia, called also 
Belcolore.'\ 

18 December 1865. 

My dear Rossetti, — In a letter dated last Saturday, Mr 
Ruskin, in answer to one of mine mentioning that I was a 
loser by my last transaction with him, tells me that he 
" considers me fair game." To-day in conversation with him 
I got the key to that sentiment. He told me of the enormous 
profits I am making, giving for example the picture I had 



WILLIAM IIOSSETTI, 1866 165 

bought from you for 200 guineas and sold for 1600 guineas. 
Now this mischievous story has injured me with Mr Ruskin 
and with you, since you asked me yesterday 500 guineas for 
a single head, a price out of all proportion with your present 
engagements to other people : and no doubt it goes the 
rounds of studios, and will damage me not only there, but 
keep collectors from coming to me for their purchases. May 
I ask you who started the mendacious story as to the 1600 
guineas. But as to the other end of the story, the figure 
of 200 guineas being right, and never having been mentioned 
by me or my people, it must have been obtained elsewhere, 
or been guessed at in a remarkable way. Perhaps you may 
have given it yourself. If so, let me draw to your attention 
that there is an end to the possibility of business if the 
producer of any article sold by a middle-man publishes 
the price he obtains ; and should I, notwithstanding the 
injurious reports above mentioned, and their effect on you, 
have again the good fortune to obtain some of your works, 
I beg you will not mention the prices charged to me for 
them. Should you have occasion for it, I would feel obliged 
by your telling those who were told the story of the 1600 
guineas that it is nothing but an idle tale. The true 
version I have given you and Mr Ruskin, but I do not want 
it to be further circulated. — I remain yours very truly, 

E. Gambart. 



no.— William Rossetti— A Spiritual Seance (No. 3). 

[The locality of this seance was the private residence 
of our old family-friend Mr Keightley the historian. The 
persons mentioned as present were all (except myself) 
immediate connexions of his : Mr Lyster being his nephew, 
a very intimate friend of mine, and my colleague at the 
Inland Revenue Office, Somerset House.] 

Thnrsday, 4 January 1866. — Mr Keightley 's, Belvedere: 



166 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

dining-room. At the table, Lyster, Louisa Parke, and I : 
in the room the two Misses Keightley, the two Misses 
Lyster, and Mrs Lyster : the last came to the table quite 
towards the close of the seance^ replacing Lyster. (Recorded 
5 January). 

We took a small round wooden table, not a shaky 
one. All the answers were given by tilts, generally ready 
and decided, which began very soon indeed after we sat 
down. On this occasion one tilt was notified to mean 
yes, and two no. 

Lyster. — Is any spirit present? — Yes. — Will he com- 
municate with me ? — No. — Louisa ? — No. — William Rossetti ? 
— Yes. — I then began asking questions, first by calling-over 
the alphabet ; but, after three or four questions, by means 
of an alphabet which I wrote and touched at. — Did you 
know me ? — Yes. — What was your surname ? — Woow. — 
We could get nothing beyond this. 

Next we asked whether some other spirit was present. 
Yes, and replied that he had known all the persons at 
the table, and (somewhat faintly) all in the room. Lyster 
proceeded to ask questions. — Surname ? — Keightley, — 
Initial of first Christian name? — W. — Of second? — S. 
(correct for William Samuel Keightley). — Where did you 
die? France, England, etc., etc. Australia? — Yes. — What 
year? — 1856. — Do you know your wife Jane in the spirit- 
world ? — Yes. — What month did she die ? — October. — What 
was the name of the place where you died? (In putting 
this question L[yster] had to enquire whether his aunts 
remembered the correct name, and Miss K[eightley] gave 
the name " Corran," or something like that). The spirit next 
spelled-out the beginning of the name, nearly the same : 
L[yster] did not go on to get the name finished. The 
family say those answers of which I did not already know 
the correctness are correct. 

After this, another spirit professed to come. — Zji-Ztv ; 
Will you communicate with me? — No. — With Rossetti? — 
Yes. — I : Spell your surname. — Eross. — I tried to get this 
more satisfactory, but failed. I then asked : " Is E. the 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1866 167 

initial of your Christian name ? " — Yes. — Is R. the initial 
of your surname ? — Yes. — Are you Lizzie, my brother's 
wife? — Yes. — Did you know Lyster? — No. — Louisa Parke? 
— Yes. (This is true, Louisa having accompanied her, 
G[abriel], and me, to the theatre). — Have you seen Gabriel 
this evening? — Yes. — Is he at Chelsea? — Yes. — What is he 
doing? painting? — No. — Asleep? — Yes. (I noted the 
moment of this reply — 8 minutes past 1 1 P.M.) — Do you 
know where he dined on Christmas Day? — Yes. — Was it 
at Burne-Jones's? — No. — Madox Brown's? — No. — With his 
mother and me ? — Yes. (Correct). Here Lyster asked : 
" Do you remember ever coming down to this neighbour- 
hood?" — Yes. — What is the initial of the name of the 
place? — B. (I did not at the moment remember the 
applicability of these answers : but L[yster] reminded me 
of Bexley — strictly Upton — where Morris resided, and 
Lizzie had visited). I then resumed : Do you remember 
Morris? — Yes. — Can you give me the initial of the street 
in London to which he has now removed ? — Yes. — What ? 
— Q. — Lyster : Is it a street ? — No. — Square ? — Yes. (All 
this is correct — ^^Queen Square, Bloomsbury : Lyster, as 
well as I, knew the correct answers ; not so Louisa, who 
appeared to be the medium). Lyster then proposed that 
one of the persons present should write unseen on a paper 
any letter of the alphabet, and ask the spirit to read it 
when kept concealed. I asked : " Will you do this ? " — Yes. 
— Miss Lyster wrote an S. Three wrong answers came, 
no right one. . . . Do you know my Father in the spirit- 
world? — No. — Your own Father? — Yes. — From about this 
point the tilts became comparatively confused and muddled, 
and almost always in two (for no), though still far from 
feeble in point of mere motion. For some while it could 
not be determined whether Lizzie was still there. At last 
a clear No was obtained. — Are you a good spirit ? — No. — 
Bad? — No. — Midway? — No. — A devil? — No. — Are you 
trifling with us? — Yes. 

I should have put in its proper place, somewhat early 
in the colloquy with Lizzie, a question put by Lyster. Is 



168 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Christianity true ? — Yes. — That which is ordinarily meant 
by "the Christian reh'gion?" — Yes. — Also I asked: Did 
you see me yesterday in Highgate Cemetery? — No. (I 
had gone to the Cemetery for Mrs Hannay's funeral). — Do 
you know the Davenports? — No. — Do you know that 
Gabriel attended their seance a few days ago? — No. — Do 
you know what will be the issue of Christina's illness? — 
No. 



III. — Professor Norton to William Rossetti. 

[I did not write the proposed article on William Blake. 
It might appear, by another letter from Professor Norton, 
that I proposed to defer such an article until Mr Swin- 
burne's book on the subject should be published — and 
eventually the matter dropped.] 

Cambridge, Mass. 
9 January 1866. 

Dear Mr Rossetti, — , . , Your paper on English Opinion 
on America is printed, and will appear in a few days. It 
seemed to me on a second reading quite as excellent as 
when I first read it in manuscript, and I regretted still 
more that its form had prevented its appearance in the 
North American Review. . . . 

If you will do what you propose, take up from time to 
time, quarterly or at longer intervals as you choose, some 
subject with which you are sufficiently acquainted to write 
upon it with satisfaction to yourself, I shall regard it as 
a great favour. The subject you mention, " Swinburne's 
poetry and its relation to our contemporary poetry in 
general," is an excellent one ; and I should gladly accept 
your proposal to write on it, were it not that before yoxix 
letter came Mr Lowell had expressed his intention to treat 
it in the next number of the Reviezu. Since receiving 



PROFESSOR NORTON, 1866 169 

your letter I have seen Lowell, and find that he really 
wishes to say something on Mr Swinburne. . . . 

There is one subject, indeed, on which I wish you 
would at some time write — William Blake's mystical 
poems. The treatment of them in Mr Gilchrist's biography 
of Blake is not satisfactory. I cannot but think that more 
is to be found out concerning them ; that they are not 
insane rhapsodies, but, however unintelligible to the mere 
common-sense, they have, in part at least, a meaning 
which the sympathetic imagination may discover and 
disclose. At any rate, I am curious to see more of them 
than Mr Gilchrist has printed. Blake's genius was so 
marvellous and so thoroughly individual, so un-English and 
so spiritual, that it is perhaps, in its mystical manifesta- 
tions, only to be spiritually discerned. 

I had the great pleasure of receiving from Mr Scudder 
last Saturday the photographs which your Brother was 
good enough to send me. They are deeply interesting to 
me, and very delightful. I know no pictures so full of 
poetic feeling or so poetic in conception as his. They 
hold a place quite by themselves in art, and to any one 
who can sympathize at all with the spirit in which they 
are conceived and executed they must be of the highest 
worth. I value them more than I can well say ; and, 
while thanking your Brother for me most sincerely for these 
photographs, I wish you would beg him to add to his gift, 
and to let me have a copy of any other photographs that 
may have been taken of his designs. Mrs Norton shares 
fully with me in appreciation and admiration of these 
works, and they give her as much pleasure as they give 
to me. 

With kindest regards to your Brother and yourself, — I 
am very truly yours, 

Charles Eliot Norton. 



170 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



112. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossetti. 

[Barone Kirkup, who had been my Father's valued and 
enthusiastic correspondent, began at this time writing to 
me; several extracts from his letters will be presented in 
the sequel — occupied to a great extent with the subject of 
Spiritualism, in which he had become a profound believer. 
I had called on the Barone in Florence in i860, but had 
only a brief interview with him. He was then very deaf, 
and in the course of years became much more so — one 
might say, stone-deaf. Mr Keightley also suffered from the 
same infirmity ; and I think it was he who had asked me 
to send Barone Kirkup a letter to which the following is 
the reply. In one sentence of his letter the Barone rather 
seems to imply that his own deafness had diminished 
under " spiritual " treatment : if there had in fact been any 
diminution, this was but temporary. — He states that my 
Brother had, towards the close of Gilchrist's Life of Blake, 
"derided spiritualism": the reference must be to Vol. I, p. 
382, where the writer (and it was in fact my Brother) 
speaks of Dr Wilkinson's poems entitled Improvisations of 
the Spirit. His tone on that occasion was light, but his 
real disposition was towards believing in spiritualism too 
much rather than too little. — The verse-quotation which 
Kirkup makes from Dante means — " A man ought always 
to shut his lips to the uttermost against a truth which has 
the aspect of a lie, since this, without wrongfulness, entails 
shame." — The water-colour by Blake, which the Barone 
calls the Three Heroes of Cainlan, was by Blake himself 
entitled The Ancient Britons: "in the last battle of King 
Arthur only three Britons escaped ; these were the 
Strongest Man, the Beautifullest Man, and the Ugliest 
Man." This water-colour (or a minor record of it) exists 
in the British Museum, though Kirkup supposed it to be 
wholly lost.] 



BARONE KIRKUP, 1866 171 

2 PONTE VECCHIO, FLORENCE. 
19 January 1866. 

My dear Rossetti, — As I can't make out Keightley's 
address in your letter, I am forced to ask you to forward 
it to him. . . . 

When I had the short pleasure of seeing you, I had 
long been living an exceptional life of incredible pheno- 
mena, and since then they have increased beyond any 
expectation of mine. Do not think that any early acquaint- 
ance I had with W. Blake can have led to it. I thought 
him mad; and, after I left England in 1816, I heard no 
more of him, till I heard that Lord Houghton was collect- 
ing his works at a great expense ! I had picked up Blair's 
Grave, and five little engravings by Blake himself I have 
very lately had a sight of his Life by Gilchrist. I don't 
think him a madman now. I wonder what your Brother 
thinks he was, for he derides spiritualism towards the end 
of that book, and he is wrong. Blake was an honest man, 
and I always thought so — but his sanity seemed doubtful 
because he could only give his word for the truth of his 
visions. There were no other proofs, and what was so 
incredible required the most perfect proofs ; such as, with 
the most jealous, scrupulous, suspicious investigation, have 
been for eleven years by me directed to the subject. I 
have been secret from necessity on account of the priests, 
and never cared for making proselytes, and I remembered 
the advice — 

Sempre a quel ver ch'ha faccia di menzogna 
De' I'uom chiuder le labbra quant'ei puote, 
Pero che senza colpa fa vergogna, etc. 

There are only two points that require to be well 
watched in the prodigies of modern spiritualists — Fraud 
and Hallucination. Those two possibilities I have never 
lost sight of, and I have rejected all theories and opinions, 
and stuck to facts only ; from which my most searching 
attention has never been diverted in an experience of 
eleven years, of which I have kept a journal, now in its 



172 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

7th volume. I have met with but few attempts at decep- 
tion, and much of my experience has been in the presence 
of plenty of responsible and competent witnesses ; so that 
the pretext of imagination goes for nothing, as we could 
not all be dreaming of the same thing. I was led to it by 
magnetism. I neither expected it nor believed in it. It 
was for my deafness alone, as I have told K[eightley]. The 
incredible cures I have witnessed are too long to be written, 
— my deafness was a trifle. Four cases of cholera of 
which two were foudroyants, in twenty minutes cured. An 
enormous dropsy, legs as big as my body and arms like 
sacks of water, cured in a night, to be thinner than I am, 
I have procured visions for other persons, who have drawn 
them, and I have the drawings in my possession, though I 
have never succeeded in having visions myself worth 
copying. But all this is of less value to me than my 
knowledge of a future state, and a better than this. It 
makes my approaching change more desirable than regret- 
table — perhaps the most fortunate moment of our lives is 
the last. As for Death, we never die — we could not if we 
would : a sleep of about twenty minutes seems all that 
intervenes between physical and spiritual life, " The rude 
forefathers of the hamlet" do not sleep. The last of 
the many bodies they have possessed is dispersed under 
ground, as the preceding ones were in the air — converted 
to gases, liquids, acids, earths, and chemicals of all sorts ; 
and we, disencumbered like some of Blake's visions, are 
free, and as happy as our tempers will allow. . . . — Ever 
yours, 

Seymour Kirkup. 

Always glad to hear from you. — When you see A. 
Swinburne, remember me to him. I have just made a 
sketch of Blake's Three Heroes of Candan from memory, 
after above half a century. It was his masterpiece. ... I 
never knew that you cared for Blake — I am living so out 
of the world. 

Tom Taylor was here. I never knew of his having 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 18G6 173 

written the Life of my great friend Hayclon. He promised 

to send it me, but he forgot. I have many of Haydon's 

letters, and I have man}' of your Father's, if ever you 
write his Life. 



113.— Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[A part of this letter has been published in Mr Ford 
Hueffer's book, Ford Madox Brown : but, thinking the 
letter worth reading as a whole, I give it insertion here. I 
am not sure what my Brother had done which he confesses 
to be wrong : perhaps he had spoken of Mrs Brown as being 
an unsafe person to whom to confide a secret. It is a fact 
that, if one told anything to Brown, he generally proceeded 
to re-tell it to his wife — and in one way or other it was then 
the apter to ooze out. Mrs Brown however was very far 
from being a tittle-tattle ; and in especial was not a malicious 
tittle-tattle — quite the contrary. — Mr Hine, here mentioned, 
was the excellent water-colour painter — taking his subjects 
very frequently from the Sussex Downs.] 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
9 February 1866. 

My dear Brown, — I feel myself to have been without 
doubt in the wrong, and can only most sincerely ask your 
pardon. Nothing on reflection could pain me more (though 
certainly I did so in a way to which I ought not to have 
been blind) than to inflict the slightest pain on you, whom I 
regard as so much the most intimate and dearest of my 
friends that I might call you by comparison the only one I 
have. The second instance of my offending has troubled me 
ever since, though it escaped my mind in conversation while 
we remained together, else I should certainly have said 
something to you in apology. Since then I have been 
divided between the idea of writing to you and the un- 
willingness to revive an unpleasant topic in case it did not 



174 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

possibly dwell so much in your mind as in my own. I 
was led to the great mistake I committed by the sudden 
necessity of citing some one in argument, and the fact of 
the name having already been once mentioned. This was 
the cause, but no excuse. As to the first instance, in which 
I now feel I was wrong also, I may explain that I regard 
all women, with comparatively few exceptions, as being so 
entirely loose-tongued and unreliable that to suggest such 
qualities in one does not seem to me to interfere with any 
respect to which a member of the sex is likely to have 
any just pretension. This had not therefore recurred to 
me in the way the other did ; though now, on reflection, 
I not only think I was wrong to express the opinion, but 
also that the opinion was mistaken. 

To refer to another point (having said all that seems 
possible in confession of how much I was to blame), I may 
say that the suggestion of any possible obligation from you 
to me seriously distresses me. Not because I think you 
attribute my thoughtlessness in any degree to such a view 
on my own part, for of that you acquit me by word as 
well as, I should in any case have known, by thought ; 
but because, if you can disregard (as I know you do) the 
great obligations under which you laid me in early life, 
and which were real ones as involving real trouble to 
yourself undertaken for the sake of one who was quite a 
stranger to you at the outset, — what can / think of a 
matter which gives me no trouble whatever, and in which 
were I inactive I should sin against affection, gratitude, 
and, highest of all, conviction as an artist ? 

In conclusion, I have no right to say, being myself the 
offender, that such offence cannot disturb our friendship ; 
but, after the sincerest expression of regret, I may thank 
you for having said what will, I trust, secure me absolutely 
against so offending again. 

I shall be very glad to see you and Hine on Tuesday 
evening, when William will be here. I had asked Boyce 
to come since seeing you, but he regrets being unable to 
do so, saying at the same time that he has been '^ interested 



CHARLOTTE POLIDORI, 1866 175 

in Hine's work for many years : it is always so full of 
point and originality, excellent choice of subject, and often 
much poetry." — Ever yours affectionately, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 



1 14. — Charlotte Polidori — Memorandum. 

[" The organ-man with the immense bush of hair " was 
Gaetano Meo ; who had from the first a certain proclivity 
for landscape-painting, and eventually took up that branch 
of the art with some success.] 

1866, February 20. — I saw again TJic Girlhood of the 
Blessed Virgin ; in which Gabriel has changed the wings of 
the angel from white to a deep pink, the sleeves of the 
Blessed Virgin from yellow to brown. . . . The Arundel 
Club, where would be exhibited the next day, for one day 
only, TJie Beloved. I heard Gabriel observe to a friend, on 
showing him his first picture TJie Girlhood etc., that it was 
painted timidly. I heard him also say that models were 
disappointing ; that, what from fatigue or such-like, they 
looked worst just when wanted to look best. That they 
suffer from sitting, particularly if consumptive. That the 
organ-man with the immense bush of hair would play his 
organ and tire himself on his way to him ; and that, though 
he offered to pay him more for leaving his organ behind, 
he ivould bring it and hide it, and then go off with it on 
his back. The negro in The Beloved he, G[abriel], first saw 
at the door of an hotel. When he asked him if he would 
sit to him, he was referred to his master. Whilst sitting 
the tears would run down his cheeks : the skin, as if it 
absorbed them as blotting-paper, would look darker. When 
not sitting he was accustomed to be most active, running 
and jumping etc. G[abriel] suggested that he might be 
thinking about his Mammy. . . . 



170 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



115. — Barone KiRKur to William Rossetti. 

[Winwood Reade is probably — and certainly ought to 
be — remembered as author of a remarkable book, The 
Martyrdom of Man. The book about the " young peasant- 
girl" who acted as a clairvoyante came into my hands. 
Her name was Assunta Orsini, and the statements con- 
cerning her were surprising enough. — The allegation that 
my Father's works were excluded by Panizzi from the 
British Museum Library is, I take it, entirely erroneous. 
— As to Kirkup's rupture with Mr Charles Lyell, I need 
not enter into details, beyond saying that it arose (as 
indeed he partly implies) out of the Dantesque studies of 
my Father. Lyell and Kirkup were only known to one 
another by correspondence. — The portrait of my Father 
done by Liverati is in my possession, and must have been 
moderately like him at the age represented. — The comment 
of my Father upon Dante's Purgatorio (barring some few 
cantos) was found in our possession, and was given by me 
to the Municipality of his native Vasto in 1883, when a 
centenary celebration of his birth was held there. A 
Comment on the Paradise, I have reason to believe, was 
never written by him. Also I hardly suppose that my 
Father wrote a "Comment" (in the ordinary sense of the 
term) on Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. 
He regarded the book as a libro viistico, and probably 
wrote something about it, to be introduced into one of 
his volumes.] 

2 PoNTE Vecchio, Florence. 
27 February 1866. 

My dear Friend, — . . . Somnambules have great amour 
propre, and are apt to guess when at a loss. My first 
lesson in training them is, "Tell the truth, and say non 
vcdo." * They soon get over it. They see a great deal 

* I don't see. 



BARONE KIRKUP, 1866 177 

more than we do, but not everything ; and the spirits 
themselves own that they are not omniscient. Many 
mediums in America are seers without magnetism — as my 
friend Home, the greatest medium yet known. The 
Davenports I do not Icnow ; but my opinion is that they 
are honest, and have been very ill used in England and 
France. Winwood Reade, whom our friend Swinburne sent 
to me, went twenty times to the Davenports, and is con- 
vinced there is no deception ; and R[eade] is a clever man, 
and has seen much of the world. The jugglers in France 
pretend io perform the tricks, but they never have. . . , 

When I was at the height of my spiritual phenomena 
(which are much diminished now) there were three parties 
who published their different theories, i. The book of the 
first party, Recherches psychologiques, on Correspondance sur 
le Magnetisuie Vital avec M. Deleuze, par le Docteiir Billot, 
was in favour of the existence of good spirits ; printed in 
Paris 1839, in 2 vols. 8vo. It is that to which my own 
experience agrees. . . . 

Before the Revolution I kept it a secret even from my 
medium Regina (who knew nothing when awake), for fear 
of the priests who were omnipotent, worse than at Rome ; 
now all religions are alike respected, and Protestantism is 
increasing, which is one step ; but there are plenty of 
bigots, as in France. I believe spiritualists are very scarce 
in Florence. The only authentic case I ever heard of was 
that of a young peasant-girl about three miles off; and it 
was patronized by some priests who treated her as a saint, 
and one of them wrote an account of it, giving it the 
colouring of his trade. But the facts themselves are very 
positive ; and I not only saw her myself but I knew 
many of the parties mentioned in the book, which seems 
written conscientiously ; and I will send it you, as it is 
well-written and well-meaning. They killed the poor girl 
among them. . . . 

I believe I have pretty well exhausted my recollections 
of poor Blake in what I wrote to Swinburne. It is so long 
ago, and I was ignorant enough to think him mad at the 

M 



178 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

time, and neglected sadly the opportunities the Buttses 
threw in my way. I only heard of him as engraving- 
master to my old schoolfellow Tommy. They (Butts) did 
not seem to value him as we do now. I was of the 
opposite party of colourists, and still a great admirer of 
Flaxman, Fuseli, and Stothard, who had infinitely more 
power in drawing than Blake. The two former were 
really my friends. Still, the impression which Blake's 
Ancient Britons made on me (above all others) was so 
strong that I can answer for the truth of my sketch, as 
will be proved if the picture is ever found. . . . Blake had 
but little effect in the works that I remember. I should 
have liked the heads more British and less Grecian. . . . 

As to the British Museum, I was told that no one of 
your Father's glorious works was admitted by that beast 
Panizzi — works that contain more poetic criticism, as well 
as philosophic discoveries, than all that had been done for 
Dante in five centuries ! I quarrelled with Lyell for not 
being staunch or consistent. . . . Remember, if you and 
your good brother ever publish anything about your 
Father, whose life was adventurous from 1821, when I 
was in Naples (I did not know him then), I have many 
of his letters which are always at your service. I have a 
portrait-sketch of him by C. E. Liverati, made in his 
younger days. 

Your admirable translation of the Inferno, which you 
so kindly gave me, I have often consulted, to see what 
your interpretation is of the original. Blank verse is the 
best. . . . Lord Vernon attempted a prose-translation 
(not readable), and it was fortunately never finished. It 
was to have been a large 8vo volume ; but it grew (the 
Inferno alone), by the continual addition of tedious 
nonsense, to the size of 4 volumes large folio ; and there 
it is after twenty-five years thrown aside, apparently for 
good. 

I should be sorry to deprive you of Haydon's Life, 
and I know of no opportunity of sending it. Eastlake 
wrote to me that it was intensely interestitig ; by which I 



ROBERT BROWNING, 1866 179 

guessed that T. Taylor had written under the direction 
of H[aydon]'s greatest enemy, as his letters to me prove, 
in which he always calls E[astlake] "the Jesuit." H[aydon] 
was the greatest designer in Europe, far before David. 
He was founded on Phidias. There was a controversy 
in TJie Examiner between him and the Hunts under the 
title of Negro Faculties, in which the theory of ideal form 
is discussed, that ought to be printed for the benefit of 
art and science. It was about 1815. . . . — Affectionately 
yours, 

Seyimour Kirkup. 

, . . Would you like to know Home ? I fear he has 
become a paid medium. He has been ten years independent, 
but I hear he is very poor. We were great friends a long 
time ago. 

The works that seem lost according to my letters are 
the Purgatorio and Paradiso, two parts of the Beatrice, 
and the comment on Poliphilo of Colonna. . . . 



116. — Robert Browning to William Rossettl 

[Thomas Dixon, the Cork-cutter, a highly laudable but 
sometimes inconvenient man, has been mentioned by me 
elsewhere. He had sent to Browning the Life of TJiouias 
Bewick and another book, asking that they might be 
eventually transferred to me.] 

19 Warwick Crescent, Upper Westbourne Terrace. 
29 March 1866. 

My dear Rossetti, — I get from time to time letters 
from "Thomas Dixon, 57 Nile Street, Sunderland," who 
chooses to write them and embarrass me : he sends books 
as " presents " — thinking there is a lack of that commodity 
in London, apparently. And I don't like to hurt his 
feelings because, from sundry peculiar bits of spelling and 
other epistolary infelicities in a mild way, I suppose him 



180 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

to need indulgence. He now sends two books — but I will 
let him say his own say. You see, I am in no condition 
to guess whether he knows you, or does not know ; 
[whether you] will be pleased with his " loan," or bothered, 
as I own myself to be. But, on the whole, let each bear 
his own burden ; and so, as bidden, I pass on the thing to 
you, really having no alternative. What yoii will do in 
turn I shall not concern myself with : only, I entreat, 
don't return them to me — who moreover will go out of 
London for the next fortnight. — Very truly yours ever, 

Robert Browning. 



117. — Horace Scudder to William Rossetti. 

[The name of Mr Scudder, as an author and editor, 
is well known on both sides of the Atlantic. Dr Chivers 
was an American verse-writer who produced in 1845 a 
curious volume entitled The Lost Pleiad^ and other Poems. 
My Brother read it soon afterwards (so did I), and was much 
amused at a certain combination of helter-skelter fervour and 
profusion, and of oddity, which marked its pages. I still 
possess the volume. — The brochure by a friend of Whitman 
was that by Mr W. D. O'Connor named TJie Good Gi'ey Poet. 
— Whether Mr Scudder did or did not bring out his pro- 
posed book about Blake I hardly recollect now.] 

9 Brookline Street, Boston. 
24 A:pril 1866. 

My dear Sir, — Since my return to America in November 
last I have kept in mind a request of your Brother's that I 
should find out something about the astonishing Chivers — a 
poet in spite of his name ; but, though I have asked Professor 
Lowell and Mr Fields, both of whom had had correspondence 
with him, they could tell me nothing beyond the fact that he 
was a Georgian by birth (American, not Asian Georgia), 
but recently was living at Washington. Further productions 



HORACE SCUDDER, 1866 181 

may no doubt be expected, for Fields declared that one of 
his letters mentioned a poem on which he was engaged " of 
the size of Paradise Lost!' So you see what is before you. 
Fields irreverently described him moreover as a bore whose 
foolscap-letters — the poet always using that style of paper — 
he had unfortunately destroyed ; for he began to think that 
they possessed a value aside from that intended by the 
author. Mr Lowell told me that Chivers had sent him his 
poetry, and he had presented half of the volumes to the 
Harvard Library. He thought him rather a droll illustra- 
tion of the shell of Shelley. I have tried in vain to get hold 
of his books. Somebody else must be on his trail — if it is 
not the doctor himself — for one of our most knowing second- 
hand booksellers told me that he had been enquired after at 
his store. 

Have you seen Walt Whitman's Drum Taps? It is 
just possible that you have not ; and I will take the oppor- 
tunity afforded by a friend's going to London to send you 
a copy, and also a brochure of a very enthusiastic friend of 
his — known for the author of a spasmodic anti-slavery novel, 
Harrington, published about the same time as Leaves of 
Grass by same publishers. The pamphlet will perhaps give 
you some information respecting Whitman : certainly I can 
add nothing, except to say that you will see in Thoreau's 
Letters an account of his visit to the poet, and the estima- 
tion in which he held him. I do not think that Mr Lincoln's 
death brought out any nobler expression of the personal 
grief of the best natures in the country than " O Captain, 
my Captain ! " The lonely grief of the poet in the strong 
contrast which he presents was really that felt by all. I 
have but lately got the volume ; and, although I do not believe 
that any new American poetry is to be established on a 
reckless disregard of natural laws of rhythm, simply because 
such laws have produced conventional rules, I think that no 
one else has caught so rarely the most elusive elements of 
American civilization. 

But my real object in troubling you with this letter is 
to speak of my intentions with regard to a Life of Blake. 



182 HOSSE'l'TI PAPERS 

As an announcement has been made in one of our literary 
journals that I am eni;aged on a Life, and is likely therefore 
to attract notice in some English paper (from the subject 
being properly an English one), I wish to speak frankly to 
you of my intention. I do not propose to attempt any- 
thing that shall aim to supplant Gilchrist's Lifi\ but simply 
to present a portion of the material there gathered in a new 
form, to American readers. I am led to do this from my 
strong interest in Blake, and from my desire that he should 
be made more familiar to my countr)'men than is possible 
under existing circumstances. . . . My work will, I presume, 
be more properly called " A Biographic Study or Sketch " than 
Life, and will be distinctly set forth as based on Gilchrist's 
work. . . . — Sincercl}' j'ours, 

Horace E. Scudder. 



ii8. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossettl 

[The opening passage in this letter relates to my Father's 
book, // Mistcro dclP Amor Platoiiico, put into print; but 
withheld from publication at the urgency of his excellent 
friend the Right Honourable John Hookham Frere, who 
considered the work dangerous to the cause of religion, 
and very likely moreover to injure the author's professional 
position in England. The remark of " the French beast " 
in Florence (Vieusseux) means " By Rossetti ? His old 
style ! " — Kirkup here names some of his old friends, most 
of whom he had outlived (but not Trelawny, though this 
name occurs in the list). By " Brown " he means the Charles 
Armitage Brown who was an intimate of Keats ; by Roberts, 
Captain Roberts, who had been concerned in the building 
of the boat in which Shelley went down. — The Italian 
passage quoted from Professor Maggi, interspersed as it is 
with French, will probably offer little difficulty to the reader: 
the pamphlet by Aroux about Francesca da Rimini must 
be a curiosit)', unknown to me save by this statement.] 



«AHONK KIRKUP, 18GG 183 

?. PONTE Vecchio, Florence. 
24 April 1866. 

My dear Sir, let me say Friend, — Rossetti is a name 
which has long sounded so to me. What you tell me of 
H. Frere is a proof of his anxious friendship for your dear 
Father, but likewise of the timidity of his character, proved 
by his failure in diplomacy. He was however a good man 
and very learned. . . . But, when your Father had left the 
K[ing's] College, what other pressure was there to prevent his 
obtaining the reward of so great and interesting a labour of 
utility and taste, of learning and years of study ? He sent a 
copy of it through me to the Reading-room in Florence ; 
and, when I gave it to the French beast its master, all he 
said was " Di Rossetti ? Le sue solite ! " I cut the ill-bred 
ignorant fellow, and never spoke to him afterwards. The 
Jesuits were at work then : I happened to see his catalogue 
some years after, and it was not in it. ... I persuaded Lord 
Vernon to print the rest of the Beatrice for him ; but they 
differed about some trifles about the type, which I regretted, 
and so it is lost, I suppose for good. . . . 

The artists in Florence have mostly disappeared. There 
is not one native patron. All the young nobles are ignorant 
and vicious. . . . 

A few English friends . . . retained me here when I 
came to change the air after the Roman fever. I have out- 
lived them almost all — Hunt, Brown, Trelawny, Medwin, 
Roberts, Severn, Landor: I was too late to see Byron and 
Shelley. . . . 

My own celebrated medium Regina began . . . with her 
guardian angel, whose name was Isacco, and who appeared 
as a child ; and continues so to my daughter, whose life I 
believe he saved in the whooping-cough, and his orders were 
contrary to the doctor's ! We continue our extra-mundane 
communications. She saw Dante lately, and so did another 
medium who was here, and he gave us some interesting 
notices. I hope to get more. . . . 

A letter from Professor P. G. Maggi (an old friend who 
lives at Milan), which I have just found amongst some papers,^ 



184 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

is dated January 1863, and contains the following: . . . 
" L'Aroux poi, che secondo taluno possederebbe cose inedite 
di esso Rossetti, e I'autore di un opuscolo, Dante Hai'tiqiie, 
R^volutionaire^ ct Socialistc ; d'un altro, L Hercsie de Dante 
demontree par Francesca de Rhnini, deve?me un inoye^i de pro- 
pagande Vandoisc^ etc. ; d'una traduzione in versi della 
Comedia ch'egli intende o fa intendere d'avere ^ conintcntee 
selon I' esprit ' ; e d'altre cose. II secondo opuscolo, che tengo 
sul tavolino, fu pubblicato nel 1857 in Parigi dalla libreria 
di Madame Veuve Jules Renouard." . . . — Sincerely yours, 

S. KiRKUP. 



1 19. — William Rossetti — Diary. 

1866, Saturday, 19 May. — This has been almost the 
first fully summer-like day, and is delightfully warm and 
sunny. Embarked at Newhaven at nightfall. 

Sunday, 20 May — . . . Came on to Paris . . . Went in 
the evening to see the Biche au Bois, which has had so 
surprising a run at the Porte St Martin (I suppose il year 
or so). It is very lavishly indeed got up. . . . After some 
symptoms of harpyism on the part of the female boxkeepers, 
I was agreeably surprised at one of them coming back to 
return me a half Napoleon which I had given by mistake 
instead of a half franc. . . . 

Monday, 21 May. — . . . Went to the Salon of Paintings 
etc., which (so far as I have gone through it, about half) 
seems below the mark. Three interesting works are 
Briguiboul's Castor and Pollux, Faruffini's Macliiavel and 
CcBsar Borgia, and Pille's Duke of Saxony after Condemnation 
to Death continuing his Game at Chess. Both the latter two 
artists are new, as far as my recollection goes, and must do 
remarkable works, from a considerable fund of artistic verve 
and sphialitc. . . . 

Tuesday, 22 May — . . . Finished with the general annual 
exhibition, finding two very fine works by Courbet. One of 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, ISC.G 185 

these is expected to obtain the grande vicdaillc ; though 
the two works in competition with it (according to the 
newspapers) show that a very bad range of taste prevails 
in powerful quarters ; one of them being a horrid Christ 
among the Doctors by Ribot, and the other, by Bonnat, .S7 
Vincent de Paul taki^ig the Galley-Cojivicfs Place, being a 
commonplace though somewhat masterly sort of thing. . . . 

Wednesday, 23 May. — Looked into Notre Dame, and 
found the decorations of the chapels pretty well finished. 
Now that this is done, though perhaps scarcely a line or a 
colour of these decorations is artistically right, the Church 
certainly looks more itself, and one sees a kind of reason in 
the system of renovation ; which has got rid of a good 
deal of rococo and other rubbishy accretion, and has brought 
the building into harmony with itself, — if indeed mechanical 
pretence at mediaivalism were harmony with the great work 
of medicevalism itself. . . . 

Saturday, 26 May. — Arrived in Marseilles soon after 7 A.M. 
. . . Went to the Jardin Zoologique, where lizards are as 
plentiful as blackberries : I also saw a big locust flying about, 
and hardly knew at first whether he was bird or insect. 
There is a very grand elephant, who made an unprovoked 
assault upon me as I stood close up to his bar before offering 
him the bread I held. He thrust his trunk into my face ; 
wound it round my neck, knocking my hat off; and I 
scarcely know why he didn't strangle me outright while he 
was about it. He afterwards accepted my bread without 
further demonstrations. There are two blue-faced baboons 
here : also two lions, — one of which not long ago got out 
of his cage through some careless fumbling of a visitor, and 
walked about with visitors in the garden, but without offering 
harm to anybody, and was without difficulty got back into 
the cage by his keeper. This was told me by a female 
keeper ; who, on my afterwards remarking that we had in 
London a collection with many more animals, explained that 
by England's being so much nearer to Africa ! A man 
brought a young hyaena, eighteen days old, " doux conime 
nn chien" (which he really appeared to be on my handling 



186 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

him), and recommended him warml)' to me as a desirable 
investment, . . . 

Sunday, 27 May. — Embarked in the morning on board 
the General AbbatHcci iox Naples. . . . The effect, in the late 
afternoon and onwards, of a low line of clouds along the 
sea-horizon, in front of the cliffs of the coast, was very 
interesting, and I don't know that I had seen it before. 

In blue and sheeny surface rolls the sea 
Mediterranean, and the coast of France, 
A wall of crumpled swaying cliffs askance, 
Dim in sun-dimness lies prolongingly. 
Overhead azure, rimmed with clouds which flee 
No whit, but hardly altered meet the glance 
From the hour's end to end, a cognizance 
Which crests the cliffs as they the waves. And we 
Smoothly and firmly from the morn till now. 
When sidelong sunbeams heat the afternoon, 
With freshness and with leisure cleave our way : 
And on and onward through the sun and moon, 
With first a sea-gull flitting, next a prow, 
Our steam shall change Marseilles to Genoa. 

Monday, 28 May. — Landed about 5 A.M. in Genoa, and 
was discomfited by a seccatore* Belgian-Yankee, who could 
not be staved off from going on shore and about with me ; 
along with a Breton-Frenchman, whose company, though I 
would willingly have dispensed with it, I did not otherwise 
dislike. Soon after landing we were joined by two other 
fellow-passengers, a Lombard of cosmopolitan habits, and 
an elderly Frenchman, both of whom were good company 
enough. . . . One of the first things we had seen in the 
morning was a boatful of Garibaldini ; i* who, as we learned 
talking to a knot of them, were (this batch) all from Palermo, 
and eji route to Como — many of them the merest lads, and 
some, I should think, not yet fifteen. (I am told too by an 
Italian boatman that various women were among them.) Vol- 
unteers are being forwarded thus every day (I saw a printed 

* Bore. 

t It will be remembered that the year 1866 was that in which Prussia 
and Italy, arS allies, fought against Austria. The Italians, taken singly, 
were not successful, but the liberation of Venetia was effected. 



WILLIAM HOSSETTI— DIARY, 1866 187 

proclamation limiting their daily enrolments), and some 50 
or 60 thousand are spoken of as already gone North. Gari- 
baldi's own whereabouts was not clear to my Palermitans : 
some supposed him at Caprera, others at Florence, and the 
rumour ran that he was to be at Genoa to-morrow (Tuesday), 
Saw also the military initiation of a number of very raw 
recruits at one end of the town. . . . Took a cab and went 
to . . . San Matteo, one of the oldest churches of Genoa, 
with a deal of sculpture by Montorsoli ; of which a good 
deal is more or less good, while one group, tJie Madonna 
with dead Christ, is extraordinarily fine — indeed, I think, 
one of the diefs-d' ccuvre of modern sculpture. . . . I'alazzi 
Brignole-Sale, Durazzo, and Doria. The two former have 
many fine pictures ; in the second is a large life-sized Van- 
dyck, called merely Una Dama e due Putti* which is quite 
extraordinary, — I think on the whole the greatest of all his 
works I know. . . . Later in the evening saw at another 
book-seller's two copies of Carducci's Selection from my 
Father's poems, and asked whether the book sold much ; 
which the shop-keeper told me it did, being sought after for 
its agreeable and choice Italian, among other qualities. . . . 

Tuesday, 29 May. — Landed at Leghorn towards 6 A.M., 
having the day before me till 4 P.M. . . . Many volunteers 
are leaving from here also, of whom a good number were 
going through the streets to the railway-station in the morn- 
ing. Plenty of sympathy and company for them ; but no 
cheers or strong demonstrations, though they belong to 
Leghorn itself . . . 

Thursday, 31 May. — After sleeping on board till about 
six, landed in Naples. A rainy day as soon as I got housed 
in the Hotel de Russie, in the Santa Lucia quarter. . . . 

Friday, i June. — . . . Returned to the Museum. . . . 
Getting to talk with one of the attendants in the sculpture- 
department, I informed him who my Father was;i' and he 
spoke to another of the attendants named Albertis (or De 

* A lady and two children. 

t I.e., that he was Gabriele Rossetti, who had in his early manhood 
been custodian of that same department. 



188 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Albertis), who entered into conversation, sayin^^ that his 
Father had known mine well, and asking with interest whether 
he ever became bHnd. He says there was some employe 
who had a portrait of my Father done during his stay in 
Naples ; * but, on making enquiry at my request, he found 
it had been taken away by the owner's son or representative. 
He says there is a book of the Poesie Inedite with a portrait 
to be got in shops on the Molo. I found in another shop a 
collection, new to me, by Di Stefano (without portrait), and 
a Paris edition of the Roma, both which I bought. In the 
evening walked out through the grounds of the Villa Reale, 
and on to the entrance of the Grotto of Posilipo, returning 
by the Riviera di Chiaia, and going on to the port and 
lighthouse, and thence home. An out-of-doors Punch was 
going on — the voice of the personage precisely the same as 
in London ; and the sort of action seems much the same 
{i.e., Punch knocking other people about), but the costume 
is that of the Neapolitan Punch. . . . 

Saturday, 2 Jime. — . . . Started off towards the East 
and South lines of streets ; but, getting embarrassed in 
them, returned home in a cab. There is a tremendous 
amount of life in Naples : — crowds flooding the principal 
streets on and off the footways (where such exist), children 
lying about on the pavements or roadways, and everybody 
taking it easy or doing it lively. As I sit writing this at my 
hotel-window, which overlooks a rude pier, I see numbers of 
youths, say from twelve to eighteen years old, running about 
thereon as naked as they were born, before or after bathing, 
within lo or 20 feet of the onlookers on the foot-path. . . . 

S/Diday, 3 June. — . . . Took a cab, intending to see some 
churches. Entered San Domenico, and find fully confirmed 
what Murray says of the fine mediaeval sculptured monu- 
ments of Naples. Some of the recumbent effigies and slab- 
tombs here are about the finest things I know in that very 
noble style. Was turned out by the necessity of closing 
the church before I had seen one-third of it. This is a 

"■ Possibly this may have been a miniature rather theatrically treated, 
which at a later date was purchased by Christina and myself. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1866 189 

pest which travellers — or at any rate I — don't sufficiently 
reflect about, and which frequently persecutes me. . . . 

Tuesday, 5 June. — . . . Saw the Church of Monte Oliveto, 
and that of Santa Chiara ; both full of splendid mediaeval 
tombs, about the finest things in that line in Europe, and 
other sculpture. The pavements of figured tiles, and occa- 
sionally mosaic as in St Mark's of Venice, also full of 
excellence. In Monte Oliveto saw a curious thing, a priest 
confessing a deaf and dumb woman, of course all by action ; 
but for convenance, one would have liked to watch the 
actions, no doubt most expressive in this gesticulating 
country. Could not get to see the great Gothic monument 
in Santa Chiara to King Robert, which one has to mount 
a ladder behind the high altar to look at. I notice in 
several monuments a peculiarity (query whether so origin- 
ally) which gives one all the completer view of the effigies, 
but injures the sense of repose and fitness — the figures are 
represented sometimes sideways, so that they zvould slide 
off, or, in slab-figures, set flush with the wall. There is 
one most splendid work thus, set up to a man and his 
wife, the latter being the slab-figure ; nothing more per- 
fectly felt exists. Also in Monte Oliveto a most heavenly 
monument to Mary, the natural daughter of one of the 
Aragonese kings. Indeed, these sort of works are so fine 
and frequent that Naples is most grossly belied by people 
who fancy it rather barren than otherwise in point of art, 
as Scott had been prompted. . . , Here is a good epitaph, 
rather Pagan-sounding, from Monte Oliveto : " Fui non sum 
— estis non eritis — nemo immortalis." . . . 

Sunday, 10 June. — ... I am assured that Naples is 
very sensibly improved in point of cleanliness since the 
advent of Victor Emmanuel, before which it must have 
been Bohemian indeed ; also that the material well-being 
of the people, price of ordinary and skilled labour, etc., are 
greatly bettered ; and my informants are Sim* and others 

* Dr Robert Sim. He had known Mr Holman-Hunt in Jerusalem 
towards 1854 : I was afterwards introduced to him in London, and in 
Naples I re-encountered him. 



190 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

of the English section, who seem by no means ebuUient 
nationalists. . . . Was engaged to call upon Sim at 8| p.m., 
and accompany him to a Methodist or some such chapel 
where they habitually sing hymns from the Arpa Evan- 
gelica : * but unfortunately, having lain down on bed upon 
my return to the hotel towards 6, never woke up till about 
9, too late to fulfil the engagement. 

Monday, r i June. — Set off to see some more churches. 
Sant' Angelo a Nilo, with a great tomb to a Cardinal by 
Donatello and Michelozzo; a great work, especially the 
Angels contemplating the dead man, and the bas-relief by 
Donatello of the Assumption of the Virgin, represented old 
and with a wonderful sentiment in the face. ... I should 
have noted that the other day, dining with the Bonhams,-]- 
I asked about my cousin Pietrocola,:|: and find he is con- 
siderably liked personally, as well as esteemed as a minia- 
ture-painter ; he is staying at present at Sant' Agata, out 
of Naples, his studio being in Via dell' Ascensione. He is 
a man of some fifty or more. 

Tuesday, I2 Jime. — . . . Sim taking hospitable possession 
of me for the remainder of the day, I did no more in the 
way of sight-seeing, but was about with him ; calling on 
the Pelham Maitlands,§ seeing Miss Neeve and her party off 
for Genoa, paying my passage-money, etc. . . . Saw on the 
Genoa boat a man whom Sim declares to be Dumas, and 
he certainly is a good deal like the portraits, only wanting 
in what I had supposed certain, dark complexion ; he must 
be something over six feet high, grizzled, and looks the 
picture of acute bonhomie : orange-brown velvet jacket and 
white trousers. . . . 

Thursday, 14 June. — . . . To the exhibition of the 
Societa Promotrice delle Belle Arti in the ex-convent of 
San Domenico : a small exhibition, and certainly not a good 
one, but still better than I had expected. There is, I 

* My feather's book of sacred poems. 

+ Mr Bonham was the British Consul in Naples. 

% A relative of Teodorico Pietrocola-Rossetti. 

i^ The Rev. Mr Pelham Maitland was the British Chaplain. 



WILLIAM llOSSETTI— DIARY, 1866 191 

think, talent more and better than in our secondary London 
exhibitions, spite of very poor style in the drawing etc. 
Sacred subjects are almost or entirely absent, those of 
history or historic genre frequent enough : the size of the 
works small, with perhaps not three exceeding six feet 
in length. Bought in the Strada di Toledo the Naples 
(1848) edition of the Veggente in Solitudinc.^. . . Finished- 
up the evening at Mr and Mrs Hirsch's f in a very Hebraic 
company. Some table-turning again, of which nothing came 
worth recording here ; but many very strong movements in 
the table, such as I saw no reason for thinking ungenuine. 
Hirsch, it seems, who was the loudest of laughers at the 
table-turning of Saturday, has in the interval, with his wife, 
had some messages which have considerably surprised him, 
and this evening he seemed the most serious experimenter 
in the company. 

Friday, 15 June. — ... It turned out that I had got 
changed into paper just about the right sum to give me the 
fair advantage of it upon my hotel and steamer bills ; and 
somewhat to my surprise no objection (which would however 
have been illegal) was raised to my paying 140 francs in 
paper upon the bill of 124 francs 50 cents, and getting 
the full change in silver. On the whole, though all the 
English residents seem equally abusive of Neapolitans 
(which means here only the inhabitants of the actual city 
of Naples), I have had no reason at all to regard them 
as more extortionate or cheating than other people ; and 
I even doubt whether there is any more need here than 
in most other places for higgling and beating down in shops 
etc. . . . Going aboard the Stroniboli. . . . 

Saturday, 16 June. — Back by a circuitous drive to the 
ship, which really did start punctually at the last-announced 
hour, 4 P.M. The ship is heavily laden with cannon for 
Genoa, the sea is brisker than on my out-voyage, and there 
is a good deal of rolling. . . . 

* By Gabriele Rossetti. 

t I suppose this Mr Hirsch was the financier known as Baron Hirsch 
— may be mistaken. 



192 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Monday, \% Jiaie. — . . . Our landing at Genoa had been 
notified for about 6 A.M., but did not take place till about 
that hour p.m. . . . 

Tuesday, 19 June. — Everybody having told me to go 
to the Villa Pallavicini, and I not knowing exactly what 
would be the nature of the entertainment there provided, 
I spent (not to say, lost) the whole day in getting and 
staying there. . . . The fun of the Villa Pallavicini, which 
so delights the modern Italian and tourist minds, consists 
in its being factitious from top to bottom. An arid rock, 
earth-clad and foliage-clad, and very charmingly laid-out 
too by art. Sham Gothic towers ; sham classic temples ; 
sham {i.e. pieced together) stalactite cavern ; a sham 
monument to a supposititious warrior who got killed in 
defending one of the fortresses against the other (! !) etc. etc. 
The architect, a withered old-fashioned old man whom I 
happened to see in the grounds, is Canzio, father of the 
husband of Garibaldi's daughter. The concoction was 
begun in 1838, and finished in 1846, occupying some two- 
hundred men per day. It is a curious, and in its way 
pleasing and successful, example of the silly in motive and 
point of view. This Marquis Pallavicini is not the one 
who shot down Garibaldi at Aspromonte (and who, I am 
told by the by, has now sought Garibaldi's permission to 
enter himself as a volunteer under him, and been welcomed), 
but, says the custode, of a separate and distinct family. . . . 

TJinrsday, 21 June. — The environs of Nice are exceedingly 
fine. . . . Spite of its Gallicization, I notice in the shops 
of Nice a good deal of glorification of Garibaldi ; but a 
serial print of his achievements misses out all about the 
defence of Rome. His birth-house is known here, but no 
photograph of it obtainable. . . . 

Sunday, 24,Jujie. — . . . All the way up the Thames to 
London. . . . 

Friday, 5 October. — . . . Hotten * sent me Sw[inburne]'s 
pamphlet, the proof, in vindication of Poems and Ballads, 

* John Camden Hotten the Publisher, who was succeeded by the firm 
of Chatto and Windus. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI- DIARY, 1866 193 

asking me to look at it, and consider certain passages. . . . 
The pamphlet is very vigorously written, and I think 
calculated to lighten the odium against the poems ; though it 
goes (as I told S[winburne] some weeks ago) beyond what I 
think effective or candid in repudiating the imputations 
of " immoral and blasphemous " matter. Left the proof at 
Hotten's in the afternoon. Went to Chelsea. ... A raven 
and several small birds bought by G[abriel] arrived : saw 
also for the first time the Pomeranian puppy Punch, who 
is a mild and confiding beast. Some section of the evening 
occupied by the evasion of one of the juvenile white mice, 
which jumped off a table, and ran behind a cupboard. 
After a long while, the cage and mother being placed 
close to the cupboard, it followed its mother back into 
the cage. . . . 

Saturday, 6 October. — At Hotten's request, called on 
him to talk over Swinburne's pamphlet, and offered to write 
S[winburne] my opinion upon certain passages. H[otten] 
says that the Athenceuni article on S[winburne] was written 
by Lush, son of a Q.C., the Saturday Review by John 
Morley, and the Examiner (which however he had not 
yet heard of) by Henry Morley ; that Mill, M.P., is indignant 
at the clamour against S[winburne] ; that the Poems and 
Ballads will again be on sale on Monday ; that he, H[otten], 
would be glad to publish my Swinburne article, if it mis- 
carries with The North American Review, — he says, to 
publish it anonymously as a pamphlet, but I would put 
my name to it. This may be worth attending to, and is 
indeed what I had thought of, but I made no definite reply. 
To-day's Examiner contains a highly laudatory notice of 
Christina, the same series as the article on Swinburne. . . . 

Thursday, 1 1 October. — Ralston* called. . . . He was 
just now at Cartledge's Temperance Hotel, Matlock, where 
he found a drawing by Gabriel of the head of an old lady, 
Mrs Wetherall ; this is the place where G[abriel] and 

* Mr W. R. S. Ralston, who made a reputation as a Russian scholar 
and translator. He was now (or had recently been) in the British 
Museum. 

N 



194 UOSSETTI PAPERS 

Lizzie stayed more than once. Cartledge declined to sell 
it. Ralston told me this singular sympathy-story, related 
to him by one of the parties concerned (the son in England), 
and he says he has satisfied himself of its truth : (he does 
not go in for such phenomena particularly). A gentleman 
who had one son in Australia (say), and the other staying 
with him in England, was seated at home with the latter 
one day, when he suddenly saw present his son in Australia, 
and started up to greet him : the appearance then vanished. 
It afterwards turned out that, just about the same time, 
the son in Australia had had a bad accident, falling from 
some height, and had been thinking vividly of his father. 
He did not die. 

Friday^ 12 October. — Scott dined with me at Chelsea. 
Gabriel and Sandys, I find, left on Monday, and are now 
at Winchelsea. . . . Swinburne returned me his proof, 
with most of the substantial alterations which had been 
proposed. . . . 

Saturday, 13 October. — Saw Hotten again with regard 
to Swinburne's pamphlet. S[winburne] has shown his 
usual good feeling and amenability to reason when sugges- 
tions are made to him in a spirit and from a quarter 
which he knows to be friendly. The issue of the book is 
delayed till the pamphlet can be brought out to accom- 
pany it. Spoke to H[otten] regarding his recent proposal, 
which I am inclined to close with, to publish my review 
of Swinburne, instead of its being sent to America. He 
seems hardly prepared to pay anything for it. . . . 

Monday, 15 October. — Wrote to Hotten offering him 
my review of Swinburne, if he will pay me ^^"15 down, 
undertake all expenses, and, after reimbursing himself both 
these outlays, halve any profits. 

Tuesday, 16 October. — Gabriel writes that he is going 
to Stratford-on-Avon. 

Wednesday, 17 October. — Hotten replies that he will 
take my review on the terms named on 15.* I wrote a 

* It was published under the i\i\e—S%vinbtirnc''s Poems and Bat lads, a 
Criticism., by William Michael Rossetti. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1866 195 

brief Prefatory Note to it, and made it ready for 
delivery. . . . 

Friday, 19 October. — Gabriel writes that, the weather 
having broken, he shall not go to Stratford, but be back 
to-morrow or Monday. Called on Inchbold by appoint- 
ment, with regard to a proposed subscription for the 
widow of Thomas Morten, and went on with him to A. 
Houghton,* M[orten]'s executor. He seems a man of 
superior quality. Has had one eye taken out in conse- 
quence of an accident, and the other has of late plagued 
him much with a sort of neuralgia, frequently preventing 
him from working during one week or so out of three. 
He says M[orten] was subject to epileptic fits. . . . 
H[oughton] is willing to undertake the general manage- 
ment of the subscription, but would wish to have a Com- 
mittee or so to fall back upon. ... I saw the paintings 
and sketches left by M[orten]. He was engaged upon a 
picture of The Council before the Massacre of St Bartholomew, 
with the incident of the nobleman breaking his sword — a 
very clever piece of work, though somewhat deficient in 
backbone and solid study. . . . 

Tuesday, 23 October. — Hotten paid me the .2^15 for 
my pamphlet. Gabriel back, seeming a good deal brisker 
and fresher. A barn - owl named Jessie, exceedingly 
tame. . . . 

Thursday, 25 October. — Howell, Chapman, i* and Marks 
the china-dealer, at dinner at Chelsea. A good deal of 
talk about Ruskin. Howell says that R[uskin]'s income 
is ;^22,ooo a year, out of which he only keeps ;^I500 for 
his own expenses. He sold the wine-business for the 
equivalent of about ^200,000, but this is paid to him as 
an annuity. The expense of his books was huge — ;^ 12,000 
for The Stones of Venice, and ;^25,ooo for the whole lot (I 
think). The sales have covered the total, and yielded 

■* Alfred Boyd Houghton, deservedly prized as a woodcut illustrator 
etc. 

f Mr George W. Chapman, a painter (prhicipally of portraits) of 
some grace and faculty. He died some few years afterwards, still young. 



196 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

him a profit of ;^40. He lately gave ;^7000 to a hard-up 
clergyman : a Greek woman, of whom he knew nothing, 
applied to him for £io, and he sent ^loo. . . . R[uskin] 
(H[owell] says) speaks in high terms of my translation of 
Dante, on the grounds of its extreme faithfulness. R[uskin], 
when in Venice, could have got what he terms the finest 
of the Venetian Palazzi for i^5oo down : H[owell] under- 
stands he would have done so but for not anticipating 
any departure of the Austrians, or consequent change in 
the price of property. He has taken charge of Miss 
Hilliard, the niece of Lady Trevelyan, who was abroad 
with them at the time of the latter's death. He also 
maintains, by an annual allowance, the Father and Mother 
of his late Wife. . . . 

Sunday, 28 October. — Houghton called. It seems he 
was in India in his childhood, being the son of an Indian 
officer, and has some knowledge of oriental matters, which 
influenced his Arabian Nights designs. He says the Persian 
cat ought to be prevented from eating any fish, or her fur 
will spoil : the Persians are particular in this, though fish 
are commonly used as manure, and are thus eaten even 
by the cattle. . . . 

Friday, 2 November. — Whistler back at last from South 
America, whither he went about the beginning of last 
February, He has painted next to nothing, and seems 
to have found but little to interest him in his travels 
— Valparaiso, Lima (which he likes much the better) 
etc. . . . 

Saturday, 3 November. — . . . Dined with Scott, Linton 
(who is off to America for some three months), etc. — 
L[inton] says he knows as a fact that the whole of Gari- 
baldi's Sicilian expedition was directed by Mazzini. . . . 

Monday, 5 November. — Dined at Jones's. . . . Howell tells 
me in confidence that the melancholy which now besets 
Ruskin, and which just at present makes him almost defin- 
itely out of health, is partly based on the fact that R[uskin] 
is in love (he did not say with whom), and under his 
peculiar circumstances embarrassed in declaring himself or 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 18G6 197 

deciding upon a course of action. It seems that some 
while ago an American lady, the reverse of young, came 
over in full knowledge of the published facts about Ruskin, 
and distinctly proposed to him : they still correspond, though 
her suit was not crowned with any success. Saw the (on 
the whole) very handsome article on Swinburne in Fraser : 
also Jones's series of Tannhauser designs, and his lovely 
picture of Cupid watcJiing Psyche reposing — in some respects 
about the best thing he has done. He adores Raphael now 
beyond all painters. . . . 

Monday^ 12 November. — My Criticism ojt Swinburne o\.\i, 
and sent me by Hotten. . . . 

Monday, 19 November. — The Star this morning has an 
abusive little paragraph against my Swinburne brochure : 
The Saturday Reviezv is markedly civil to me (far contrary 
to my expectation), and makes some approaches to amends 
towards the genius of Sw[inburne]. A party at Brown's, 
where his picture of Cordelia's Departure with King of 
France, water-colour sold to Craven, was to be seen. 
Sw[inburne] there, being back for a fortnight or so : speaks 
with great satisfaction of my pamphlet. . . . 

Tuesday, 20 November. — Hotten says that his first lot of 
Sw[inburne]'s poems, which I understand to be all he got 
from Moxon, has sold, and he is going to have-in another 
lot : the like with Sw[inburne]'s Notes. My pamphlet 
consists of 250 copies. . . . H[otten] showed me a con- 
fidential letter addressed to him by one of the Police- 
magistrates, saying that he is satisfied Sw[inburne]'s book 
is not seizable nor indictable : the only question being 
whether H[otten] could prosecute any other publisher who 
might re-publish the book unauthorized. 

Wednesday, 21 November. — Sandys says he knows the 
Saturday Reviezv notice of Sw[inburne]'s poems was by 
John Morley : he doubts whether the present notice of my 
pamphlet is so. Traventi called at Albany Street, wishing 
Christina to make some verbal alterations in the Birthday, 
to make it more intelligible when set to music ; she con- 
sented. T[raventi]'s first musical composition was to ^^Sei 



198 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

pur bella" * and used to be much sung about in chorus 
towards 1848. . . . 

Tuesday, 4 December. — Dined at Ruskin's — the first time I 
have so much as seen him these three or four years. He 
looks to me on the whole well, and somewhat less fragile 
than of yore. His Mother tells me she will be eighty-six 
next birthday : she has lost one eye altogether, and says 
(though I had before been told the contrary) that her sight 
now is altogether less good than when I used to see her. 
She belongs to an English, not Scotch, family : her Husband 
was born in Edinburgh, of a Galloway family. R[uskin] 
proposes to bring out a book of extracts from his works, 
giving prominence to certain points he has at heart : the 
extant Selections he had nothing to do with, but Harrison f 
chiefly or wholly. He considers Titian, Velasquez, and a 
third (I think Tintoret), the great masters of painting as 
an art. I was introduced to Miss Agnew,J also Constance 
Hilliard. R[uskin] wishes to resume seeing Gabriel ; and 
I recommended him to call, and abstain from overhauling 
his work too brusquely : he considers G[abriel], when he was 
last in the way of seeing him, had got into a bad way of 
work, though such as may be natural in a progressive course. 
Went hence to Howell's, where I saw his Tintoret, which 
is a splendid decorative work. I could not affirm it to be 
by Tintoret, but think it quite reasonably likely. R[uskin] 
pays him ^^300 a year : has given Cruikshank altogether 
about £(>0Q since the subscription-plan was started. 

Wednesday^ 5 December. — Called by invitation to see, for 
the first time, Stephens and his Wife in their new home, 
10 Hammersmith Terrace ; it seems, as far as one can judge 
by night, an agreeable oldish house, the back looking out 
direct on the river. The Browns there also. . . . Stephens 

* Gabriele Rossetti's patriotic lyric, written in 1820. Traventi was 
a Neapolitan musical-composer, who stayed from time to time in 
London. 

t Mr Harrison had edited something by Ruskin when the latter was 
extremely young. 

\ Now Mrs Arthur Severn, 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1866 199 

gives me distressing news of Hunt's Wife,* who, according 
to Mrs Woolner, has had a relapse, and is in an alarming 
state. 

Thursday, 6 December. — Dined at Street's,-]- who seems to 
be (as I should have surmised) a strong Tory: detests Victor 
Emmanuel, contemns Garibaldi, etc. Morris says he has 
done something like half of his long poem.;]: 

Friday, y December. — At Chelsea. I find that Ruskin 
called on Gabriel on Wednesday, and all went off most 
cordially — R[uskin] expressing great admiration of the 
Beatrice in a Death-trance.\ . . . 

Thursday, 13 December. — Resumed, after an interval of 
two or three months, my translation of Dante — now in 
Purgatorio, canto 17.II . . . 

Saturday, 15 December — Dined with Brown, who has 
just about finished a water-colour of The Last of England, 
for which Kate did some preliminary work, showing appar- 
ently very considerable aptitude : Nolly also shows some 
promise as a designer, and Lucy, says B[rown], as a colourist. 
... I am pleased to find my Swinburne pamphlet very much 
lauded by B[rown]. 

Sunday, 16 December. — Wrote Macmillan asking whether 
he would publish the selection I have noted down from my 
articles in The Spectator etc. Began notes on the new 
version of The Stations of Rome for the Early English Text 
Society. 

Monday, 17 December. — G[abriel] says that . . . Lady 
Waterford and Mrs Boyle are doing a set of illustrations to 
Christina's poems. . . . 

Saturday, 22 December. — Stephens sends me the sad news 
of Mrs Hunt's death on 20 December. Hotten tells me of 
the purchase at Moxon's of two copies of Swinburne's Poems 

* Wxs first wife, be it understood. 

t George Edmund Street, the Architect of the new Law-courts in 
London, etc. 

\ The Life and Death of fason. 

§ The Beata Beatrix, now in the National British Gallery. 

II The translation went but very little beyond this point. 



200 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

and Ballads— M.o^on's Edition— on 15 and 21 December, 
by Mr Graham, an American, for £1. is. each.* I wrote 
Swinburne about this very suspicious-looking transaction. 

Sunday, 23 December. — Wrote Hunt offering to come to 
Florence, if it would be any satisfaction or convenience to 
him. 

Monday, 24 December. — Martineau tells me that Mrs Hunt 
died of fever supervening on the exhaustion of her confinement 
— chiefly of a miliary fever to which Florence is especially 
subject. . . . 

Thursday, 27 December. — Swinburne leaves to Hotten 
any action on the sale by Payne of Poems and Ballads. . . . 

Sunday, 30 December. — Revisited (at Mrs Masson's invi- 
tation) the Ormes,f after an interval of some six years. 
Herbert Spencer there, who seems to believe in many of 
the reported phenomena of mesmerism, but not in their 
being caused by effluence from one person to another. . . . 



120.— Dante Rossetti— Scraps. 

[In a writing-book of my Brother, in which he jotted 
down all sorts of casual trifles, I find the following 6 items, 
which may be not totally undeserving of a niche here. — i. is 
a skit upon the title, Essays written in the Intervals of Busi- 
ness, of a book then much in vogue, done by Sir Arthur 
Helps. 4. must be proper to the year 1866, when (as men- 

* The Moxon firm having withdrawn Mr Swinburne's book on the 
plea of its being immoral etc., and having sold the remainder to Mr 
Hotten, they had of course no right to retain and sell some of the 
copies ; for which a fancy-price was charged, obviously on account of 
the scandal attached to the volume. 

t Mrs Masson (wife of the Historiographer for Scotland) was a 
daughter of Mrs Orme — a lady who, along with her family, had treated 
me with constant kindness in my early youth, towards 1850. Mrs Orme 
was a sister of the first Mrs Coventry Patmore, " the Angel in the 
House," 



CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1866 201 

tioned in my Diary) my Brother, with Mr Sandys, made a 
little trip to Winchelsea and its neighbourhood. I insert 
this slight jotting as being of use for fixing a date ; and I 
take the same date as if it pertained to all the items, but it 
would not have done so strictly. 5, a regimen for diet, may 
have applied more to a generally plethoric habit of body in 
those days than to anything like definite illness.] 

1. Essays written in the Intervals of Lock-jaw, Elephan- 
tiasis, and Penal Servitude, 

2. Title for comic journal — Gas, or the London Luminary. 
Cover, a large gas-lamp with the title on it, and dark view of 
London street behind. 

3. The " Cratur " of the Irish Volcano ; a whiskey-bottle, 
with little Irishmen swarming up it, and taking fire at the 
mouth. 

4. Winchelsea, Northiam House. Tenterden, Kent, about 
ten miles thence. Good Inn kept by Tabrett, within a drive 
of Rye. Cranbrook, Dutch weaving-town. 

5. From John Marshall. Eat meat, poultry, game, fish, 
oysters, kidneys, green vegetables, stewed fruit, ripe fruit. 
Small quantity of toast or rusk ; very few potatoes. Drink 
thin wines or cyder; summer, claret or chablis, with equal 
parts cold water. Winter, ditto, with half as much hot water 
and nutmeg. Very little tea or coffee. Avoid or reduce 
much bread, potatoes, sugar, beer, spirits, cocoa, chocolate, 
olive-oil, eggs, bacon. 

6. For plain scarlet : try laying ground with Venetian or 
Indian red, and white, to the full depth of tone, and glazing 
with oranse-vermilion. 



121. — Christina Rossetti to William Rossetti, Naples. 

[Mrs Cameron was a Sister of Mrs Prinsep, who lived at 
Little Holland House, with her Son Valentine (the painter) ; 



202 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

also of Mrs (Lady) Dalrymple. Mr G. F. Watts, the 
celebrated Painter, tenanted a studio in the same house. 
Freshwater Bay was the ordinary residence of Mrs Cameron : 
my Sister never visited her there, nor do I remember that 
she ever set eyes on Tennyson.] 

Miss Boyd, Penkill Castle, Girvan, Ayrshire. 
4 June 1866. 

My dear William, — I hope you are amongst still finer 
surroundings, but you are not badly off if you are only in a 
country as fine as this. As to room, I suspect I exceed you, 
inhabiting as I do an apartment like the best bedroom at 
Tudor House on a large scale. Miss Boyd makes me very 
welcome and comfortable, and the Scotts don't need com- 
ment from me. . . . Ailsa Crag is a wonderfully poetical 
object continually in sight. Of small fry, jackdaws perch 
near the windows, and rabbits parade in full view of the 
house. The glen is lovely. And, to crown all, we are having 
pleasant mild summer. 

This morning Pr\incc's\ Pi\ogrcss\ actually came to 
breakfast — blemished, to my sorrow, by perhaps the worst 
misprint of all left uncorrected. . . . 

Mrs Cameron called one day (of course in London) with a 
portfolio of her magnificent photographs, of which she kindly 
presented five to Mamma, Maria, and self Maria and I 
returned her visit at Little Holland House, where we saw the 
gigantic Val, Mr Watts, Mrs Dalrymple, and got a glimpse 
of Browning, besides of course seeing Mrs Cameron. I am 
asked down to Freshwater Bay, and promised to see Tenny- 
son if I go ; but the whole plan is altogether uncertain, and I 
am too shy to contemplate it with anything like unmixed 
pleasure. . . . — Always your loving sister, 

Christina G. Rossetti. 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 186G 203 



122. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[The point of this letter lies in its illustrative design, 
not here reproduced. — The Portrait of J amy (Mrs William 
Morris) is, I suppose, the oil-portrait, three-quarters figure 
in a blue dress, which now hangs in the National British 
Gallery : I question whether it was finished much before 
1869. — In the afore-named design Rossetti has depicted 
himself as he would have looked if his dress-coat had been 
doffed, with a great rent in the back of his waistcoat and 
trowsers : he is tearing his hair. William Morris is present 
— a dumpy figure amusingly caricatured ; also Brown, his 
Wife and Daughter Lucy, Holman-Hunt, and two other 
personages who are probably Peter Paul Marshall and 
Warington Taylor. The design is under-written with the 
words " Physical condition " etc. — The Tupper named at 
the close of the letter is of course the author of Proverbial 
Philosophy — not our friend John Lucas Tupper.] 

16 Cheyne Walk. 
16 June 1866. 

My dear Brown, — If you can conveniently, will you 
let me have that big Scrap-book again to-morrow (Friday). 
My reason is that I believe I shall begin a portrait of 
Janey on Saturday ; and, if I do it in the same action as 
the drawing in the book, I might square it off life-size 
before she comes. 

I was very sorry to bolt in that way so early from 
such a really jolly party as yours. But, Brown, if you had 
known ! Doubtless you, in common with your guests, 
admired my elegant languor and easy grace. But O 
Brown, had Truth herself been there to rend away my 
sheltering coat ! Behold me ! 

Physical condition and mental attitude. 

The burden of conscious fat and hypocrisy, the stings 
of remorse, the haunting dread of exposure as every motion 
wafted the outer garment to this side or to that, the senses 



204 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

quickened to catch the fatal sound of further rents, — all 
this and more — but let us draw once more over the scene 
that veil which Fate respected. Might not Tupper say- 
truly, " Let not Man, fattening, leave his dress-trowsers too 
long unworn, lest a worse thing come unto him " ? — Your 
affectionate 

D. G. R. 



123. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossettl 

[As to the statement " the Italians have now been 
defeated," see a note on p. 186. The remarks which follow 
this apply to the war of 1859 — Sardinia and France against 
Austria.] 

2 PoNTE Vecchio, Florence. 
2 July 1866, 

My dear Rossetti, — I don't wonder at your spending all 
the time you could afford in Naples. ... I was there in 
the year '21 (of the Carbonari), and saw the Germans, and 
the King with his dispensation for perjury. The Italians 
have now been defeated, but they are not discouraged. I 
am most so at the defeat of the Liberals in England, and 
the return of the Derby party just at this moment. That 
man caused us the loss of Venice. He sent a fleet to 
the Adriatic, menacing the French, and a ship of the 
line to Leghorn to insult the Italians, because the G[rand] 
Duke had run away from Florence ; and he encouraged 
the Prussians to march to the Rhine, which was the cause 
of the French deserting us at Villafranca, The Times alone 
had a Special Correspondent at that time ; and the paper 
was so full of lies and calumnies that I wrote to Lord 
Lansdowne, who knew me formerly, and offered to send 
him the truth, which he gladly accepted. And I sent him 
no opinions of my own, but matters of fact : all the pro- 
clamations, edicts, new laws, etc., printed by the Provisional 



JOHN MURRAY, 1866 205 

Government : to his great surprise and satisfaction. And 
I continued till Lord Palmerston came in, when TJie Times 
became veracious. A friend of mine here asked tJie Corre- 
spondent how he could send such false reports ; and he 
said he had always sent the truth, but that, when his 
articles appeared in the paper, he did not know them 
again, they were so changed to suit the politics of the 
editor ! — a Derbyite, of course. . . . 

I enclose you two photos of your dear Father from the 
drawing of the Chevalier Liverati. It is a rough sketch ; 
but he excelled in likeness, and had much practice. It is 
washed and penned in sepia. It is 2\ inches from the top 
of the head to the chin. One is for you, and one for your 
Brother. . . . — Yours sincerely, 

S. KiRKUP. 



124. — John Murray to William Rossetti. 

[I do not remember the details of this matter — beyond 
the fact that Christina undertook and executed the trans- 
lation, and so much as appears in No. 130.] 

50A Albemarle Street. 
14 August 1866. 

My dear Sir, — Do you happen to know any one capable 
and willing to translate from Italian into English the 
descriptive text of a work on Brick Architecture in 
Italy, of which I enclose the title ? It would require a 
little technical knowledge of art to do it properly. It is not 
a very extensive work, 50 or 60 pages of text perhaps. 
I suppose you have not leisure, nor probably inclination, 
to do it yourself — I remain, dear Sir, yours very 
faithfully, 

John Murray. 



206 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



125.— Professor Norton to William Rossettl 

[The publication of Mr Swinburne's Poems and Ballads 
produced an amount of rage and noise such as the Hterary 
arena seldom rings with. I wrote an article on the book, by 
no means laudatory to the exclusion of some counter- 
considerations, and I offered it to Professor Norton for his 
NortJi American Review. Before posting it to him, however, 
I found that it would not be in harmony with opinions 
concerning Mr Swinburne already expressed in that serial : 
so I with-held it, and it was soon afterwards (as my Diary 
shows) published in London as a small volume. Mr 
Swinburne's book was withdrawn from circulation by its 
publishers, Moxon and Co., acting through their managing 
partner, Mr J. Bertrand Payne : it was then re-issued by 
Mr Hotten. To this matter also some reference has already 
been made in these pages.] 

AsHFiELD, Mass. 

12 September 1866. 

Dear Mr Rossetti, — I need not tell you with what interest 
and pleasure I should read anything you might send me 
concerning Swinburne's poems ; but I fear that your regard 
for the author and admiration of his powers may lead you, 
in the warmth of championship, to go farther in his defence 
or in assertion of his merits than the severe critical 
judgment of a Transatlantic Editor (the impersonation of 
posterity !) will allow him to accompany you. 

Lowell did write a notice of Swinburne, in the NortJi 
American for April, which you will find worth reading, 
whether you agree or disagree with it. 

I have not seen Swinburne's new volume — but only a 
few poems taken from it. . . . — Always sincerely yours, 

Charles E. Norton. 



BARONE KIRKtJP, 1866 :^07 



126. — William Bell Scott to William Rossettl 

[By "Sir Walter" Mr Scott meant Sir Walter C. 
Trevelyan, of Walliiigton, Northumberland.] 

Penkill. 
16 September 1866. 

My dear W. M. R. — . . . The par[agraph] about Swin- 
burne was sent me by Sir Walter along with The Pall Mall 
6"[rt:^6^//^] and other things. . . . The par[agraph] I judged from 
the print to have been cut out of the London letter of the 
Northern Daily Express ; but it is no use taking notice of 
such. However, I heard that Woolner was the man to 
bias the publisher and carry the point, in the consideration 
of the withdrawal of Algernon's book ; and I at once wrote 
Woolner, and asked him the question direct. I enclose his 
letter and Payne's, which you can return to me when read. 
You will prevent Gabriel or any one else repeating the 
assertion — (observe, Woolner says directly that Payne had 
seen or heard nothing of him for many months) — and do 
justice to an old friend. The story I heard had nothing to 
do with Gabriel. . . . — Yours ever, 

W. B. SCOTT. 



127. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossettl 

[The "fratelli Bandieri" (or Bandiera) were two Italian 
patriots in the Austrian military service, who, breaking loose 
from Austria, raised an abortive insurrection in 1844: they 
were both shot. The letter-opening by Sir James Graham 
had to do with this affair.] 

2 PoNTE Vecchio, [Florence]. 
20 September 1866. 

My dear Rossetti, — The Napoleonic plebiscite is only 
a temptation to the Venetians not to join the Kingdom 



208 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

of Italy, which is already too great for the policy of 
Bonaparte ; who deserted at Villafranca, and sent two 
ambassadors to Florence to persuade and threaten the 
Provisional Government to receive back the G[rand] Duke 
under the presidency of the Pope, but he failed from the 
firmness of Ricasoli and the Florentines. I knew one of his 
agents, Joseph Poniatowski. The other Dukedoms the 
same. . . . He wants Sardinia, and now sends a French 
legion to defend the Pope against the Romans. 

As for our good King, I hear that he is priest-ridden. 
He had a mistress — no great harm, as he is a widower : 
she died, and the Jesuits are now at work to provide him 
with another {ime affiliee) ; we shall see what comes of it. . . . 
The King refused to accept Venice and make peace without 
the consent of his ally of Prussia, according to an agree- 
ment ; but the Prussians have made peace without the 
consent of Italy, and Trent and Trieste will be lost ; and 
they are both Italian, and will be left for some other 
opportunity, and so they will remain for future con- 
tention. . . . 

I agree with you, Mazzini is a great man, — the greatest 
statesman in Europe, as Garibaldi is the greatest soldier ; 
but he, M[azzini], is blackballed and calumniated by the 
English press, and the associates of the letter-opener 
Graham are now in power. Remember, Lord Derby 
was his companion when they deserted their party and 
went over to the Tories. I wrote to Bright the other day 
to remind him of it. In one of our rejoicings I saw a banner 
at a window not long ago with an inscription. Alia inemoria 
del fratelli Bandieri^ with a crape scarf attached to the 
flag-staff The Italians don't forget that affair. 

I sent to Paris for Aroux's book. It is written in earnest 
against Dante, and dedicated in a grovelling tone to the 
Pope. Three-quarters of it is stolen from your Father with- 
out acknowledgment ; and the original part of it is, ... I 
suppose, ... in the MS. of Beatrice. ... I have only peeped 
into Aroux as yet. I see he had taken much from the Mistero 
dell A[mor] P{latonico\ Whenever that comes out, it will 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1866 209 

show up Mr A[roux] as a plagiarist. The copy sent to me 
has this inscription : "A M. Ste Beuve, hommage affectueux 
de I'auteur E.A.," but Mr Ste B[euve] had never read it, for 
the leaves were unopened, . . . 

Bruno Bianchi's edition speaks highly of him [Gabriele 
Rossetti] in the preface ; which surprised me, as he is a 
priest. It is his first edition of the Divina Coniinedia, i844- 
His last, in 1863, is titled La Comincdia di Dante. The 
Pope has forbidden La Divina^ and he is obliged to obey 
orders. I have an edition expurgated by a Spanish In- 
quisitor in Naples, with plenty of ink, so that not a word is 
legible of four long passages. I was surprised there were 
not more. . . . 

My eyes are always threatening. I write most by feel^ to 
save them ; so excuse scrawl. — Yours sincerely, 

Seymour Kirkup. 



128. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[I am not at all sure as to the year in which this letter 
was written. Possibly, rather than 1866, the date ought to 
be 1865 : but other correspondence of Rossetti, proper to 
the autumn of 1865, makes me doubtful as to this.] 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
26 September [1866?]. 

My dear Brown, — . . . I've just been to Llandaff re- 
touching my picture, and have much improved the centre- 
piece by lightening the Virgin and Child. I haven't been 
well lately, and must try and get a change. I have been to 
Marshall. 

I shall look you up soon — I suppose you're mostly in of 
evenings. — Yours affectionately, 

Gabriel. 
o 



210 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



129. — William Rossetti— A Spiritual S£ance (No. 4). 

[Lady Trevelyan, the wife of Sir Walter Trevelyan of 
Wallington and of Seaton, had died not long before this date. 
Dr Samuel Brown had been an intimate friend of Mr Scott's 
youth. — Mr Oliphant, the husband of Mrs Oliphant the 
novelist, had been known to Scott in more recent years as a 
designer for stained glass in Newcastle. — Pritchard was a 
doctor in Glasgow, who had come to the gallows for poison- 
ing. I no longer remember details about Jeffery.] 

Thursday, 18 October 1866. — Mrs Marshall's, the upstairs 
front room. Daylight. Scott, Mrs M[arshall], Mrs M[arshall] 
junior, and myself: Marshall occasionally in the room, but 
mostly out. A slightish, rather clumsy round table. (Recorded 
20 and 22 October.) 

Scott had fixed that he would try for communications 
from Lady Trevelyan, and next to her Dr Samuel Brown, 
and the Surgeon Listen, and would ask advice as to the 
discolouring of his nails. I fixed to try for Deverell and 
Morten. 

Mrs M[arshall] junior only at the table at first, and up to 
a late period of the seance ; Mrs M[arshall] senior being not 
far off in a chair, seemingly dozing, as shown by frequent 
tendency to snoring. Taps began, of increasing loudness, 
almost as soon as we sat down. 

Mrs M\arshair\ junior. — Is any spirit present? — Yes. — 
Will you communicate with me? — No. — With this gentle- 
man (myself)? — Yes. — I then asked: Give your surname. — 
Baker. — Christian name ? — John. — Profession ? — Lawyer. — 
Did you know me? — Yes.— When? 1865? — No.— 1864? — 
Yes. — All this being quite out of any cognizance of mine, I 
asked for a message, which came very readily, " I tried to 
obtain your money, but was flustered : " and then " I was 
your great enemy." — As I could make nothing of all this, I 
proposed that Scott should try to communicate with some 
other spirit. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1866 211 

Scott. — Is there any spirit present who will communicate 
with me ? — Yes. — Surname ? — First came P. Then Trery. 
Then Trerol, and nothing beyond this obtainable (Lady 
T[revelyan]'s Christian name was Pauline). — Give Christian 
name ? — Edward. — Give a message ? — I would have lived, 
had I been cared for. — Another ? — Look more to your health. 
Take plenty of steel in sherry, and once a week take a little 
charcoal. — Scott (I also assisting throughout this affair) now 
tried again to obtain the name. The answer came, " What's 
in a name ? The rose by any other name would smell as 
sweet." A further attempt produced the name Trehone. 
Scott : Where did you know me ; the place where you lately 
built a cottage ? — Newcam. (Should have been Seaton). — 
How long ago did you die? — Seven months since. (Scott 
tells me Lady T[revelyan] really died 5| months since). — 
Where are you buried? — At the old place (not correct, if 
meant for any place in England). — I asked whether the spirit 
would give me the name of the place where I used to know 
her : Answer, Yes. — Will you give it by taps in reply to the 
alphabet ? — No. — Will you write it ? — Yes. — On the table ? — 
No. — Below the table? — Yes. — Mrs M[arshall] junior then 
placed below the leg or pillar of the table, where I could see 
them, a pencil and paper. On picking these up at the end 
of the seance, I found a few slight scratches on them (I am 
not sure these were not there before, and they made no 
approach at all to writing). 

Scott now wrote covertly on a piece of paper the name 
Samuel Brown, M.D., and asked whether that spirit would 
communicate. — Yes. — Spell out the name? — Thomas Scott 
(the surname given with a goodish amount of bungling), 
Scott says he never knew any one so named. 

I now asked if the spirit I was thinking of (this was 
Morten) was present. — Yes. — Give your name ? — Olephafant, 
— To me this suggested nothing ; but Scott remarked it 
might be Oliphant, whom he had known, Scott asked : 
Are you my friend Oliphant? — Yes. — Give your Christian 
name ? — Frank (correct). — Give me a message ? — I am not 
dead. . , . Will you tell me the place where you first knew 



212 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

me? — Newcastle. — Where did you die? — Albine Hills. 
(Understanding this to mean Alban Hills, both these two 
answers are correct, as Scott tells me. A previous attempt, 
enquiring the name of the great city near which he died, 
had failed). — What was your profession? — Awi. — This came 
more than once. Other attempts to get it correct, including 
the running over the names of various professions, failed. 
At last came "a tinker," 

We now again tried to get into communication with 
the previous spirit, which from some indications had 
appeared to be possibly (as wished for) Lady Trevelyan. 
In answer to the enquiry whether that same spirit was 
present (we did not give the name, nor till after this the 
sex) came " Yes." — Give your Christian name ? — Page. — 
Surname? — Trewel. — Is that the whole? — Yes. — Give your 
maiden surname ? — Jerley. (Jermyn is the correct name). 
— Try again ? — Jerman. — Try for your Christian name again ? 
— Ajnes (with much bungling). Further attempts on this 
tack came to nothing. 

I now wrote on a paper, covertly, the name Deverell, 
and asked " Is the spirit whose name I have written 
present ? " — Yes. — Give the name ? — Elizabeth. — This, though 
entirely wrong for Deverell, suggested to me the possible 
presence of Lizzie. I asked for the surname, which came 
S., and I could get no more. 

After this failure, I asked " Is there any other spirit 
present?" — Yes. — Who? — Your guardian angel. — Have you 
wings? — No. — Are you like a man? — No. — Give a message? 
— You will be called abroad, but you must not go. — When ? 
— Next year. — What will happen if I do go? — You will be 
very ill. [^N.B. 2 Apiil 1868. This came something a little 
like true. At the end of 1866 I offered Hunt to join him 
in Florence after his wife's death. He declined it for the 
present, but said he might ask me at a future time. This 
he never did. I did actually go abroad to Paris only : was 
not quite well there, but also not ill] — Can you tell me 
where I purpose going to next year? — Yes. — Where? — To 
Austria. — Any other place?— To India. — Any other place? 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1866 213 

— To Spain. (The fact of this matter is that I purpose 
going to Paris and Venice : Austria is not therefore absolutely 
wrong. I had till recently purposed going to Spain, but 
consider that intention pretty conclusively abandoned. 
India is of course utterly wrong.) — Can you tell me 
where I went to this year ? — Yes. — Where ? — Jersey (totally 
wrong — Naples was the place). — Is there such a place as 
hell? — No. — I mean a place where people are roasted and 
so on? — No. — Is there any place of punishment for souls? 
—Yes. — Do any souls remain there eternally? — No. — Then 
will every soul that ever did or ever will go to hell get 
out of it again ? — Yes. — Such a ruffian as Pritchard, for 
instance? — Yes. — Did he go to hell? — Yes. — Is he there 
now? — No (I think was the answer, but am not quite sure). 
— Is Jeffery, hanged the other day, now in hell? — Yes. — 
Is there any devil ? — No. — No such being as is ordinarily 
understood by the name Satan? — No. . . . 

On leaving the table, Scott and I looked at the " sperrit- 
drawings " of which several new specimens are framed and 
hung up in the room : things which it is a humiliation so 
much as to look at — The Dream of Richard III., Witch of 
Endor, Death of Richard II., a Fruitpiece, etc. M[arshall], 
who is the author of these works, says that the spirits say 
they influence him to produce them, "to show their power." 
He seems totally unaware of the feelings with which any 
one . . . must regard these performances. 

Scott and I considered the seance on the whole a some- 
what unsatisfactory one : yet, on reading-over the details 
here set down (and which are all of any importance that I 
remember to have happened), it cannot be denied that some 
of the messages were curiously right, and others very near 
being right. — N.B. To the best of my knowledge, none of 
the Marshalls yet know my name or belongings, nor yet 
Scott's : I have always been cautious to avoid calling him 
by name, and, as far as I remember, have in practice 
avoided doing so. All the answers given were by raps, 
very prompt, but pretty often bungled, and on enquiry 
revoked. 



214 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



130. — John Murray to William Rossettl 

50A Albemarle Street. 
I November [1866]. 

My dear Sir, — In consequence of your letter dated some 
six or eight weeks ago, stating that Miss Rossetti would not 
be indisposed to undertake for me the translation from the 
Italian of certain descriptions belonging to a work on The 
Terra Cotta Edifices of N\ort]i\ Italy, I have now the pleasure 
to enclose an instalment of the MSS. ... It consists of: — 

1. General Introduction on Terra Cotta. 

2. San Gottardo, Milan. 

3. Certosa, Pavia. 

4. San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, Pavia. . . . — Yours very 
faithfully, 

John Murray. 



131. — J. A. Froude to William Rossettl 

[I have little doubt that my " American friend " was 
Mr Stillman : but I do not remember the details of this 
contribution (about the American Civil War) offered to 
Eraser's Magazine^ 

5 Onslow Gardens. 
12 November 1866. 

My dear Rossetti, — . . . Give me a day or two to think 
about your American friend's letter. He ought to know 
that many of us have all our lives been ardently desiring to 
see England draw near to America. I myself always detested 
the tone of the English press and English society about it : 
yet, when the war broke out, my sympathies were with the 
South, because I believed that the North was trying to do 
what it could not do, and that it was bringing discredit upon 
Republicanism by what I supposed to be useless violence. 



BARONE KIRKUP, 1866 215 

I see that I was wrong — but we had no means of knowing 
what the truth was, when their own people told such different 
stories. 

The letter will do good, I think, and I should like to 
insert it : but, for my own sake, I must attach a few words 
in a note, declining for myself to accept the blame which he 
thinks we all deserve. Do you think I may do this without 
giving fresh offence ? — Faithfully yours, 

J. A. Froude. 



132. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossettl 

[Kirkup's intercourse with " the spirit of Dante " figures 
more than once in his correspondence. He eventually sent 
me a photograph of the drawing completed by " the spirit," 
and the signature to it : I could not perceive any symptom 
of genuineness in either — the signature being in that sort 
of semi-Gothicized or semi-legal text-hand which one often 
sees over shop-fronts in Italy and France. — Beppo Giusti 
is the satirical poet Giuseppe Giusti.] 

Florence, Ponte Vecchio, 2. 
13 November 1866. 

My dear Rossetti, — Your letter confirms my idea that 
our opinions agree on all subjects. My friend Trelawny is 
the only man I know who thinks as we do of Mazzini. As 
to religion, he, T[relawny], has none, any more than I had 
before my spirit-revelation. He says : " I neither believe 
nor disbelieve : I have no evidence." He does not care 
about it, and has had no experience, as I have, . . . 

Did I tell you that Dante has lately drawn part of his 
own portrait, and written his name under it, to oblige me ? 
He spells his name with two ll's, Dante Allighieri, which 
is not the common way in Italy. The writing agrees 
wonderfully with Leonardo Aretino's description. There is 



216 ROSSETTi PAPERS 

no specimen extant in Italy. It is in a sort of Gothic 
character, but not so ancient as I should have expected. I 
have MSS. even of the thirteenth century written by Floren- 
tines. He is now at Venice. He was with Garibaldi. All 
my spirits left me when the war began (except two females), 
and only came three times, to tell me news before it was 
known in Florence. . , . 

I always said I would believe in a future life if anybody 
would come back to tell me of it. Well, they have come — 
perhaps fifty in the twelve last years ; and the American 
Minister at Turin told me that in his country respectable 
and competent witnesses of such facts were counted not by 
thousands but by millions. . . . 

Your poor Father had the whole Coiiiinedia by heart ! 
Beppo Giusti, whom I knew intimately, had the same 
power. . . . — Ever yours sincerely, 

Seymour Kirkup. 

In Verona Pietro Dante suppressed one " 1," and made 
it " Aliger," to be in fashion and favour at the Court of the 
Scaligers. Hence the arms were changed to a wing, canting 
arms. I have a tracing from the real arms of Dante, drawn 
in 1302, the year of his banishment. It agrees with Pelli. 



133. — John Ruskin to William Rossetti. 

[Refers to my brochure on Swinburne's Poems and 
Ballads^ 

Denmark Hill. 
2 December 1866. 

My dear Rossetti, — I don't often read criticisms (disliking 
my own as much as or more than other people's), but I 
have read this ; and like it much — and entirely concur with 
it as far as you have carried it. But you have left the 
fearful and melancholy mystery untouched, it seems to 



TEODORICO PIETROCOLA-ROSSETTl, 1866 217 

me, , . . the corruption which is peculiar to the genius of 
modern days. 

I hope George Richmond will dine with me on Tuesday 
next, the 4th, at six : if this reaches you in time, I wish you 
could come too. It is so long since I have seen you. — Ever 
faithfully yours, 



Love to Gabriel always. 



J. RUSKIN. 



134.— Teodorico Pietrocola-Rossetti to William 
ROSSETTI — ( Translatioji). 

[Our Cousin Teodorico made, and eventually published, 
a skilful translation of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market: 
it is this of which he speaks as // Mercato dei Folletti. — The 
name of Pasquale de' Virgilii is known to me, not solely 
through Teodorico's letter ; but I must confess myself still 
ignorant of his works. — Filippo Polidori was a first Cousin 
of my Mother. Under the Grand-ducal government of 
Tuscany he held a legal or official post of some repute ; but, 
when Tuscany was absorbed in the Kingdom of Italy, he 
was regarded as a " Codino," or effete adherent of the old 
regime, and he lost his post, and spent his closing years in 
some straits. He left a family ; one son is still living, also 
(in Alessandria and Florence) the son's wife, and some 
children and grandchildren. Teodorico refers to the cause 
of Polidori's death ; it was, I think, a fall downstairs.] 

Casa Guicciardini, Florence. 
22 December 1866. 

My very dear William, — . . . Not having yet taken a 
settled home, I have not been able to get from Turin the 
trunks containing books and MSS.; so I have not yet suc- 
ceeded in obtaining and publishing // Mercato dei Folletti. 
But I trust to be able to do so shortly. I am curious to see 
what effect may be produced on the Italians by Christina's 



218 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

style of poetry, so daring and fresh and fine. As regards 
poems, here among us all is still regulated, and conformable 
to the rules of the Ars Poetica ; if one excepts one Abruzzese, 
a friend of mine, Pasquale de' Virgilii, who has broken the 
Horatian dykes, and goes ahead untrammelled, producing 
excellent things, but little appreciated. Lately he wrote a 
historic drama, Nicolb de' Riejtzi, worth its weight in gold. . . . 
You will have learned by now that a most sad home- 
occurrence has quenched the life of good, excellent Signor 
Filippo Polidori. The poor widow, and his son, are incon- 
solable. . . . — Your very affectionate Cousin, 

T. PlETROCOLA-ROSSETTI. 



135.— Barone Kirkup to William Rossettl 

[Kirkup, in speaking of " my unexpected honours," refers 
to the fact that he had recently been created a Barone in the 
Kingdom of Italy. — "Mrs Watts, ;2/^ Howitt," was Mrs Anna 
Mary Howitt-Watts, daughter of William and Mary Howitt, 
and at one time a promising oil-painter, apart from being 
" an extraordinary spirit-drawing medium " : I had first met 
her as far back as 1850 or 1851. — " Dugald Massey" is mis- 
takenly written by Kirkup for " Gerald Massey."] 

Florence, 2 Ponte Vecchio. 
30 December 1866. 

My dear Rossetti, — ... I am no flincher from the truth, 
which is all that I care for ; and, though I cherish my new 
religion, I should resign it if any proof could be brought 
against it. I acquired it easily enough, for I had no false 
religion to unlearn. I was like my friend Trelawny. . . . 

I have a . . . Comedy performed before the Court of 
the Medici, and has been printed in three editions — La 
Vedova, Coniedia facetissiina di M. Nicolo Buonaparte, Citta- 
dino Fiorentino, 15 18; and dedicated to a " nobilissima e 



WARINGTON TAYLOR, 1866 219 

gentilissima Signora." You may see it at the British 
Museum, for my copy is a duplicate that they sold in 1769. 
King Louis Bonaparte sent his nephew and his librarian to 
offer me 10 louis for it, and I told them I never parted with 
my friends in paper or parchment. . . . 

I think I told you that Dante had returned, and claims 
to be the cause of my unexpected honours. He has written 
his name, and drawn part of his own portrait. . . . 

Do you know Mrs Watts, nee Howitt, an extraordinary 
spirit-drawing medium ? . . . — Yours sincerely, 

S. KiRKUP. 

I enclose my mask of Dante, the best that is known ; 
likewise one for your Brother, and one for Swinburne, with 
my regards. 

Have you seen a work on Shakespear's Sonnets, written 
by his spirit, edited by Dugald Massey ? What is it ? An 
American told me of it. 



136.— WARINGTON Taylor to William Rossettl 

[I appear to have been solicited by some person — but I 
don't now in the least recollect by whom — to introduce the 
words of some song to the notice of a musical critic. Not 
being myself familiar with that branch of criticism, I must 
have sought advice from Mr Warington Taylor, the Manager 
of the Morris Firm, who had previously been connected with 
one of the opera-houses. He replied as follows, in terms 
which would not have been highly gratifying to musical 
critics.] 

[London.] 
31 December 1866. 

My dear William, — Received your letter yesterday. 
Cannot do anything with critics without I could see them, 



220 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

which is beyond me now. But critics do not signify two- 
pence for single ballads. The great thing is to get it sung 
half a dozen times at large concerts by a really popular 
singer. Of course I am speaking of the whole matter purely 
in a commercial light. The song in question is sung by 
Miss Pyne — excellent — better person could not be to make a 
song. But in England the thing is to conciliate that person ; 
if she don't like the words, strike 'em out — put in others — 
put in what she likes. Singers, and particularly singers of 
acknowledged position, look upon newspaper-writers with 
contempt. To take to Miss Pyne the opinion of a critic 
is treating her with contempt. She would throw the song 
in the fire. You do not know in what contempt newspaper- 
critics are held in London by the profession. If Miss P[yne] 
will sing that song a few times, if she will declare it worth 
anything, if she says it is popular, Chappell will buy it at 
once and publish it. . . . It is a great thing for a new man to 
get to a great publisher like Chappell : . . . but Chappell, for 
a first song, would not give above ^5. But remember what 
he can do — look how he keeps your name before the public ; 
every week these enormous advertisements ; no private 
individual could afford it. The thing is to keep your name 
continually in print. Look how Dan Godfrey was made by 
that house. He got £^ for TJie Guards Waltz — Chappell 
made thousands, and behaved very first-rate to Dan. 

Summa : work Miss Pyne properly, and then Chappell. 
— Yours, 

W. Taylor. 



137. — William Rossetti — Diary. 

1867. Saturday, 12 January. — . . , Went down at 
Swinburne's invitation to visit his Father at Holmwood, 
The old gentleman is kindly and conversible, and has seen 
and observed a number of things. Lady J[ane] Swinburne 
has an attaching air and manner, and seems very agreeable 
in home-life — simple, dignified, and clever. There are three 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 221 

daughters at home, all sensiblfe and agreeable ; the second 
with a handsome sprightly face, and the youngest evi- 
dently talented. The younger son was unwell, and has 
not shown. Swinburne shows well at home, being affec- 
tionate in his manner with all the family, and ready in 
conversing. . . . 

Sunday, 13 January.— Sts-ytd in at Holmwood all day, 
the snow being tolerably thick (day fine and cold) ; save 
for a stroll about the grounds, which are pleasant, as also 
the house. Swinburne read me at night his poem, approach- 
ing completion, on Italy ; yesterday, one which he has 
written for the Candiote refugees, to give them the profits. 
He also showed me the dedication to me of his book on 
Blake. There is at Holmwood a portrait of Lady Jane 
done by Kirkup some thirty-five or so years ago. 

Monday, 14 January. — Came home : intensely cold. . . . 
The Swinburne family generally have Algernon's passion 
for cats. Admiral Swinburne was at one time stationed 
off St Helena : he saw Napoleon, but only in a casual way, 
far off. He has not a bad opinion of Sir H[udson] Lowe 
personally ; and says there is reason to think that the 
attempts made by Napoleon and his suite to carry on 
clandestine communications etc. etc. were incessant and 
most perplexing. . . . 

Wednesday, 16 January. — Accompanied Swinburne in 
looking out, at the British Museum Print-Room, such Blake 
designs as might be adapted for re-production in his book. 
Obtained a formal ticket of admission to Print-Room. . . . 
Jones, who came round to us at Chelsea in the evening, says 
his triptych of The Adoratioft oj the Kings s,o\di lately for £'j 
at a sale of effects, since which Bodley has re-purchased it 
for ;^50. . . . 

Tuesday, 22 January. — G[abriel] dined by appointment 
with Procter,* to enquire particulars about Wainwright,-]- 
and received a good deal of information. I went to the 

* The so-called Barry Cornwall. 

+ Wainwright was suspected of poisoning his wife and some one 
else (towards 1835 perhaps) : this charge was not brought home to him, 



222 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Burlington.* . . . Leighton" there, very much dissatisfied 
with the various designs sent in for a new National 
Gallery. . . . 

Monday, 28 January. — . . . Macmillan replies that he 
will publish, on half profits, the selection of my old articles, 
as compiled by me in the second instance, without curtail- 
ment. 

Tuesday, 2g January. — Howell selecting some autographs 
from among the letters and papers which G[abriel] brought 
away with him from Chatham Place in '62 : the bulk of the 
residue burned. . . . 

Tuesday, 5 February. — Accompanied G[abriel] to Marks's, 

to look at the Chinese furniture he has bought there. . . . 
Met here Birket Foster, who commissioned G[abriel] for two 
pictures.^ Went on to dine with Whistler, for his house- 
warming at his new house in Lindsey Row. There are 
some fine old fixtures, as doors, fireplace, etc. ; and W[histler] 
has got-up the rooms with many delightful Japanesisms etc. 
Saw for the first time his pagoda cabinet. He has two 
or three sea-pieces new to me : one on which he particularly 
lays stress, larger than the others, a very grey unbroken 
sea : also a clever vivacious portrait of himself begun. Light 
not sufficient for judging any of these adequately. . . . 

Wednesday, 6 February. — My Aunt Margaret is now given 
over, and not expected to live beyond to-morrow evening 
at furthest. Copied out and sent to Dilberoglue such 
passages from Stillman's letters concerning Crete as could be 
publicly used without identifying or compromising him. 

Thursday, 7 February. — Saw my Aunt in the morning — as 
it proves, for the last time. . . . G[abriel] came in later in 
the evening. The poor little tame barn-owl Jessie has 

but he was convicted of a forgery or fraud, and transported. He was a 
painter, also an art-critic under the pseudonym of Janus Weathercock. 
My Brother thought his criticisms marked by much discernment, and had, 
towards this time, rather a " fad " for knowing something about him. 

* The Burhngton Fine Arts Club. 

t I think these pictures were executed, but have forgotten what they 
were. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 223 

had a horrid end, being found with her head bitten off — 
it is surmised by the raven, which Hves in the same cage, 
but had hitherto, by the experience of many weeks, appeared 
on perfectly good terms with her. The fate of our beasts 
at Chelsea has been a most calamitous one. Two grass- 
green parrakeets starved to death ; a green Jersey lizard 
killed by a servant because he was regarded as a poisonous 
eft ; a dormouse found with a hole in his throat, conjectured 
to be done by the other dormice ; Loader's dog * split up 
the back by the deerhound ; a tortoise found dead and 
shrivelled, perhaps through inability to get at food : — not to 
speak of natural but sudden deaths of two robins, a cardinal 
grosbeak, a salamander, etc. etc. There was also a rabbit 
eaten up (by cats ?) all but his tail, a pigeon devoured by a 
hedgehog — which was afterwards found dead, and supposed 
by G[abriel] killed by the servants intentionally — another 
pigeon which got paralysed or something, and lost all control 
over its movements. 

Friday^ 8 February. — My Aunt died about 5^ this 
morning, in a state of great exhaustion, but not apparently 
much pain. Her age was seventy-three. . . . 

TJmrsday, 14 February. — . . . Gabriel came in the 
evening. He suggests to Christina to name to Roberts 
Brothers (her American publishers), who wanted her to 
propose some artist to illustrate somewhat cheaply some 
one of her poems, Hughes, Houghton, and subordinately 
Wigand and Knewstub.f These publishers sent Christina 
the other day ;^38. los., being the 10 per cent, upon her 
sale : 3000 copies have been printed, and all disposed of 
save 400 (or else 600). G[abriel] says his income in 1865 
was about ^2050 ; in 1866 ;^i8oo odd. 

Friday^ 15 February. — Delivered the materials of my 

* Loader was my Brother's servant. 

t Arthur Hughes the painter ; Houghton already mentioned ; Wigand 
was a young man known more particularly to some of my Aunts ; W. J. 
Knewstub was my Brother's pupil. In a previous book of mine he was 
termed my Brother's " professional assistant " ; but this seems to imply 
a salaried post, which is not correct. 



224 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Selection to Macmillan. Jones called at Chelsea. He says 
that Watts debated and consulted friends as to whether 
or not he should accept the R.A. Associateship, and finally 
determined to do so. . . . J[ones] says he himself feels much 
like a fish out of water in the Water-Colour Society, and 
often doubts whether he did well in joining it. 

Saturday^ i6 February. — G[abriel]'s little oil-picture sold to 
Leyland, TJie Christmas Carol, a girl singing and playing on a 
lute, is now finished. In consequence of my Aunt Margaret's 
death, the question arises whether we shall incur expense 
upon our present house (i66 Albany Street) by way of 
utilizing the rooms she used to occupy, or whether we shall 
look out for another house. In the latter case my Aunts 
Charlotte and Eliza would like to join, which would enable 
us to take a house at the rent of £\ lo or thereabouts. . . . 

Friday, 22 Febiniary. — Called on Hotten relative to the 
proofs of Swinburne's Blake, which are in some muddle. 
H[otten] showed me a paragraph in an American paper 
edited by Bryant, setting forth the affair of the sale by 
Moxon of the suppressed copies of Poems attd Ballads; 
slips of this paragraph have been printed off; also a long 
criticism on Swinburne, very favourable on the whole, in 
a German newspaper. . . . 

Saturday, 23 February. — Visited the Dudley Gallery, con- 
taining Brown's Betrothal of Cordelia, two subjects from 
poems by Christina,* etc. . . . Went to the Zoological 
Gardens, first time for some months. The great rufous owl 
is called Pel's owl : the black wombat very fat ; four tigers 
fed in the same cage. Each (with much less ado and 
savagery than the lion) stood up to take his hunch of meat, 
disposed of it in a trice, and exchanged greetings with his 
neighbour, rubbing noses, etc. . . . 

Tuesday, 26 February. — Saw Sandys's Medea, which is 
getting on, and coming, I think, his best work, Safifi dined 

* They were by Eliza Martin and Mr Jopling : the latter was slightly 
known to me, but not to Christina. The lady used the quotation " Life 
is not good" etc. : Mr Jopling's subject was Lady Maggie (poem Maggie 
a Lady), I do not remember either work. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 22o 

with us at Chelsea, along with Scott and Howell. Saffi 
does not seem to contemplate settling in Italy at present : 
he considers that the country has produced no statesman 
since Cavour, and in especial no financier, and that the 
financial condition is ominous. He says that Ugo Bassi, 
the priest who along with Gavazzi was prominent in the 
Hospitals of Rome under the Triumvirs, being caught by 
the Papal legate Bedini, was actually, before being exe- 
cuted, flayed, fingers and crown of the head, according to 
some old ceremonial for the degrading of priests : this he 
asserts to be an ascertained and incontrovertible fact. He 
considers the Neapolitan and Southern provinces to be 
especially fertile of a clever population, and that they will 
probably take the intellectual lead shortly. Armellini, his 
co-Triumvir, is dead : he does not believe much in Gavazzi, 
but seems to have a friendly feeling towards him. . . . 
Howell says that Carlyle got Ruskin to join the Eyre 
Defence Fund * by urging him to second C[arlyle] in that 
body ; and that Ruskin now considers himself somewhat 
left in the lurch by C[arlyle]'s absence in Italy, while 
R[uskin], who would willingly have kept out of the whole 
affair, remains here to bear the brunt. Sandys told me the 
other day that Rose, or the Defence Committee, has re- 
ceived a letter from Gordon's father, who actually applauds 
the hanging of his son. . . . 

Sujiday, 3 March. — . . . Mamma yesterday saw Woolner, 
who has been to Florence, Rome, Naples, Mentone, etc. : 
enormously delighted, and especially with Naples ; Florence, 
where he had incessant rain, much less. He says Hunt is 
much overcome, and greatly wrapped up now in his infant, 
which seems ominously delicate. He proposes to send it 
to Mrs Waugh,f and to go on himself in course of time to 
Jerusalem. . . . 

Tuesday, 5 March. — Howell says that ... at Ruskin's 

* The fund for defending Governor Eyre, of Jamaica, against certain 
proceedings consequent upon his acts in suppressing or punishing an 
insurrection. 

t Mother of Hohnan-Hunt's late wife. 

P 



256 ROSSETTi PAPERS 

marriage ^^40,000 was settled on Mrs R[uskin] ; and that, 
as far as he can trace out in the accounts, this sum has 
remained with her, spite of the nullity-of-marriage suit. 
He regards this as intentional generosity on R[uskin]'s 
part, but does not seem to have ascertained whether 
R[uskin] had really any power of revoking the settle- 
ment. ... 

Saturday, 9 March. — Kirkup sent me a photograph of 
the face of Dante which he drew, and to which Dante's 
ghost (according to himselQ added the outline of the head, 
a wreath, and the signature. I see no look of genuineness 
in these additions. Brown called, and borrowed some Italian 
photographs, to use in the background of the Balcony- 
scene from Rovieo and Juliet which he is painting. . . . 

Tuesday, 12 March. — Swinburne, who had accompanied 
Scott to the Burlington, says that he received yesterday, 
to his unspeakable satisfaction, a letter from Mazzini con- 
sequent upon S[winburne]'s poem on the Cretan Insurrec- 
tion in the Fortnightly. M[azzini] urges him to devote his 
poetic powers to the great public cause, laying aside love 
etc. poems. S[winburne] thinks very well of the comedy 
and self-vindication written by Lorenzino de' Medici,* which 
I lent him. Gabriel has resumed work on his Lady LilitJi. 

Wednesday, 13 March. — Forwarded to the Telegraph two 
more Cretan letters from Stillman, and (observing that the 
last two do not seem to have been published) enquired 
whether they contemplate continuing the correspondence. 

Thursday, 14 March. — A[lecco] lonides having invited 
me to be introduced to the new Greek Minister, Sir Peter 
Braila, I called on the latter (i Clarges Street). He is 
evidently a man of great intelligence, and well up even in 
such questions as the merits of V[ictor] Hugo, Tennyson, 
etc. From the turn the conversation took, I infer that his 
real object in wishing to know me was to see whether I 
could be got to write for the Cretan cause in some news- 
paper — for which however I have no opening. He seems 
tolerably confident of the early release of Crete from 

* See p. 247. 



William rossetti— diary, 1867 227 

Turkey, and junction to Greece ; but is anxious that the 
influence of England towards that result should not lag 
behind that of France and Russia. 

Ffiday, 15 March. — Gabriel re-painting the head of his 
Venus. Robertson the dramatist called by appointment to 
read the drama Caste which he has forthcoming : it is a 
work of decided ability, and I should say an assured 
success. G[abriel] tells me he understands R[obertson] used 
to be a travelling showman. I should not have guessed it 
from his conversation and manner, though no doubt these 
might be toned down a little. . . . Robertson was the last 
man who saw Artemus Ward alive, but already insensible, 
at Southampton. He says his disease was not consump- 
tion ; but thinks that Ward had been living very fast some 
little while before coming over to England, and that his 
constitution was thus shattered. He had a great regard 
for W[ard]. . . . 

Monday, 18 March. — . . . Woodward writes me that Day 
and Son have just given up The Fine Arts Quarterly. . . . 

Wednesday, 20 March. — . . . Christina has been solicited 
by Elliot and Fry to sit for her photograph — they have 
already done Miss Ingelow and Mrs Riddell : but she declines.* 

Thursday, 21 March. — . . . Visited Christie's, to see 
Rose's pictures there collected for sale : Gabriel's Joan of 
Arc, Doubles, \ etc.; Jones's Buondelnionte, Laus 'Veneris, 
etc, ; Legros, Chapman, etc. It looks to me as if they 
would not sell high. Met here Howell. . . . He means at 
Rose's sale to bu}'-in all Jones's pictures on Ruskin's 
account — to be replaced at Jones's disposal for re-sale, and 
any profit to remain for J [ones]. . , . 

Saturday, 23 March. — Looked in at the sale of Rose's 
pictures. Gabriel's fetched the highest prices obtained, yet 
not high — £^df. I OS. for thQ Joan of Arc. Also went to see 
the Japanese conjurors at the Floral Hall : curious and 

* I no longer recollect Christina's precise reason for declining. It 
must, in a general way, have been modesty, based on religious con- 
siderations. 

t The subject entitled Hoiv they met Themselves. 



228 ilOSSETTI PAPERS 

good. What amused me most was the gestures of the 
conjuror in the mask of a tiger-cat. The two girls, stated 
to be aged fourteen and sixteen, are less grown and 
developed than English girls of corresponding age. . . . 

Tuesday^ 26 Mardi. — . . . Gabriel has received the 
Botticelli (female half-figure) which he bought at Christie's 
(Colnaghi's sale) the other day for ;^20. . . . Here is a 
generous act of Swinburne's — Chapman my authority. 
S[winburne] and others dined the other day with Knight, 
of The Sunday Times, concerning whose wife's trust-money 
there was some difficulty then just turned up. This difficulty 
came to Swinburne's ears a day or two afterwards, and he 
wrote to Knight (who showed C[hapman] the letter) saying 
that he happened then to have ;^200 in bank, which he 
placed at K[night]'s disposal. K[night] declined with 
thanks. . . . 

Friday, 29 March. — Gabriel painting a water-colour, 
founded on an old design, of a woman having her hair 
combed out upwards. He has painted on the back of the 
head of his Botticelli, and improved it very sensibly — the 
previous condition of this part of the picture being obviously 
wrong, and I understand injured by previous cleaning. 
Whistler looked in. He says that he never from first to 
last received any invitation to contribute to the British 
Section of the Paris Exhibition. This might seem invidious : 
but the result is that he gets in the American Section much 
more space than could have been allotted him in the British. 
He will have pictures in this Exhibition, in the ordinary 
French Salon, and in the R.A., this year. The Salon 
people, or some of them, have shown a high estimate of 
him. . . . 

Sunday, 31 March. — Called to see Whistler's pictures for 
the R.A. etc. To the R.A. he means to send Symphony in 
White No. 3 (heretofore named The Two Little White Girls) 
and a Thames picture ; possibly also one of his four sea- 
pictures ; and I rather recommended him to select the 
largest of these, which he regards with predilection, of a 
grey sea and very grey sky. His picture of four Japanese 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 229 

women looking out on a water-background (Thames) is as 
good as done, and in many respects very excellent. I think 
the unmitigated tint of the flooring should be gradated, but 
he does not seem to see it. . . . 

Saturday, 6 April. — At the request of Reid, Keeper of 
the British Museum Print-room, called to see a MS. in the 
MS. department which has been offered through Colnaghi 
as the production of Blake. I am quite satisfied Blake had 
nothing to do with the composition or transcription of the 
verses, or the composition or execution of the designs ; and 
said so, promising to bring round our MS. book for com- 
parison. Dined with the lonides (first time I have been 
there). It was the anniversary-day of the Greeks in 
connexion with their Revolution. The members of the 
family seem all very intelligent, and the women especially 
well-informed and interested in intellectual subjects — as is 
also the case with the Spartalis. Miss I[onides] tells me 
that Homer is read entirely by accent, and the value of 
longs and shorts not now understood : she has herself done 
a hexametral, and I understand quantitative, translation of 
the first four books of TJie Iliad. 

Tuesday, g April. — Maclennan called. He . . . says 
that his professional income has not of late been improving, 
but the contrary ; which he attributes partly to some pre- 
judice consequent upon his book on Primitive Marriage^ 
and partly to the fact that some of his legal employers 
have had immediate connexions of their own called to 
the bar lately, and have transferred their business to 
these. . . . 

Wednesday, lo April. — Showed our Blake MS. to Bond 
of the British Museum, who appears to be now satisfied that 
the volume offered to the Museum is not Blake's. 

Thursday, 1 1 April. — Murray sent Christina a cheque for 
£2 1 for her translating-work on the architectural book. 

Friday, 12 April. — Gabriel is now doing a Paolo and 
Francesca water-colour : substantially a duplicate of the 
composition in the triptych-subject, but much altered in 
background and effect. . . . 



230 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Tuesday, i6 April. — . . . G[abriel] and I met Scott at 
the Burlington in the evening. S[cott] says that Swinburne, 
being at Karl Blind's the other evening, met Mazzini 
personally for the first time. M[azzini] walked straight up 
to S[winburne], who fell on his knee before him and 
kissed his hand. . . . 

Friday, 19 April. — Gabriel doing a study . . . for a 
picture which he proposes to call The Loving-Cup. He has 
also done a study for a Margaret with the Jeivcls. . . . 

Tuesday, 23 April. — Gabriel has begun the small oil- 
picture of The Loving-Cup. ... I having said in the course of 
conversation that I had found Jones's opinion of Leighton 
entirely changed of late, and now very favourable to him as 
a man, Howell tells me that L[eighton], observing the 
prejudice Jones had conceived against him, called on J[ones] 
some while ago, and in the handsomest manner expressed 
his high admiration of J[ones] as a painter, and his wish to 
serve him in any possible way, and to stand well in his 
estimation. J[ones]'s aversion could naturally not stand out 
against this. ... I am surprised to hear (from Howell) that 
Lord Houghton was (equally to Swinburne with Mazzini) 
most demonstrative towards Garibaldi when the latter was 
in London two or three years ago, — H[oughton] having 
actually, on being introduced to him, knelt down and kissed 
his knees, not much to G[aribaldi]'s satisfaction. . . , 

Friday, 26 April. — Gabriel spoke to me about his health, 
which in one respect has for some time past not been 
ri^rht : he had consulted Marshall about it before he left 
town in the autumn, and ought probably to be seeing 
about it again now. He says that Swinburne called on him 
the other day, and said he has been seeing a great deal of 
Mazzini, partly at the latter's own house ; that M[azzini] 
can be amusing in conversation, in describing people he 
has met, etc. . . . 

Tuesday, 30 April. — Called on Conway to fetch the 
edition of Whitman which he had offered me. He lent me 
also the pamphlet (in proofs) which Burroughs has written 
on W[hitman]. . , , 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 231 

Thursday, 2 May. — Began re-studying Walt Whitman 
for the article 1 am to write on him in The Chronicle.'* . . . 

Sunday, 5 Alay. — Mamma now expresses her readiness 
to move to the house we saw in Euston Square, provided 
we can get it for £120. 

Monday, 6 May. — Went for a short time to the R.A. ; it 
strikes me as a very vulgar and tawdry exhibition. Millais, 
I fear, going off seriously {JephtJia, etc.). . . . 

Tuesday, 7 May. — . . . Swinburne called — full of his 
interviews with Mazzini ; who has a great objection to the 
present Italian Government, even apart from the question 
of monarchy, and would prefer to leave the Roman States 
quiet for five years or so, rather than see them annexed to 
the present Italian Kingdom by an immediate revolutionary 
movement, as contemplated (it seems) by Garibaldi. S[win- 
burne] speaks of M[azzini]'s immense magnetic power, 
which he feels operating upon him, S[winburne], apart from 
the enthusiasm which he entertains for his character. 
M[azzini] goes frequently to Rome still — something like 
once a year : he spoke with great regard of my Father, on 
S[winburne]'s mentioning him. He lives in Fulham Road 
in a very modest way — having, S[winburne] says, absolutely 
no definite income of any kind. , . . Mazzini urges him 
much to write poems with a directly democratic or humani- 
tarian aim : which S[winburne] finds it difficult to shirk, at 
the same time that he feels conscious that is not exactly his 
line, and would not promote his true poetic development. 
He says M[azzini] takes great interest in poetry : some, he 
believes, in music : little or none, as far as he sees, in paint- 
ing etc. 

Wednesday, 8 May. — Met Webbf and others at Boyce's.;!: 
. . . Howell says that, according to Mrs Jones, Jones is 
(very needlessly) so down-hearted, in consequence of the 

* This was a short-lived weekly review, on a plan resembling The 
Saturday Review. It was chiefly an organ of Roman Catholics of liberal 
opinions. 

t Philip Webb, architect, a member of the Morris Firm, 

\ George P. Boyce the water-colour painter. 



232 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

attacks and criticisms upon his pictures this year, that he 
says it is just a toss-up whether or not he shall throw 
aside the brushes for ever. . . . 

Saturday, 1 1 May. — Met Cave Thomas, who appears to 
consider himself somewhat aggrieved in the matter of the 
testimonial which is being got up to Colonel Richards as 
originator of the Volunteer movement. Thomas appears 
to admit the claim of R[ichards] as having called a meet- 
ing to start the question ; but says that himself (Thomas) 
was the organizer of the movement, which he considers 
much more important. . . . 

Monday, 13 May. — Dined at Howell's with Jones, Boyce, 
and several others. ... A Civil-List pension has been 
granted to Cruikshank, ^^95 — in addition to an annual ^^50 
from R.A. Legros dilated on the derivation from England 
of the whole romantic school of France, whether in litera- 
ture or art — as Delacroix, Decamps, etc. His interest in 
art of this sort seems to grow less and less : he considers 
Poussin, Watteau, David, and Ingres, the four lights of the 
French School. He has received a medal at the Paris Salon. 

Tuesday, 14 May. — Miller, Windus,* and others, dined 
at Chelsea. Miller says he is seventy-one years old : he 
seems to me to have altered very little since I first knew 
him in '57. Windus lives in a village near Preston. He 
says that he promised his late wife that he would never 
part from their daughter, which prevents his entering into 
any arrangement which would allow of his pursuing his 
profession advantageously — as in London. He has lost all 
power of setting to work, or resolving to do so : yet, when- 
ever he does attempt anything, he finds he paints better 
than of old : Miller confirms this. . . . 

Thursday, 16 May. — Dined at Scott's with Alf[red] 
Hunt and his wife. . . . Hunt expresses a bitter feeling 
against the R.A. in general, and in especial Creswick, who, 
it seems, is regarded among landscape-painters as going 
about saying that none of the rising men in that line is 

* John Miller the Liverpool picture-collector ; W. L. Windus, the 
painter of Burd Helen and other works of " Pra^raphaelite " affinity. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 233 

good enough for admission into the Academy. Hunt is 
much put out at finding himself practically confined to 
water-colours : his oil-pictures have more than once been 
rejected at the Academy. He made a remark which is 
new to me, but may have some considerable element of 
truth in it : that a figure-painter may expect to be in his 
prime by the end of some ten years' practice, but a land- 
scape-painter, according to the modern scheme of that art, 
cannot possibly do his best till between forty and fifty — 
the number of entirely different objects and phenomena to 
be studied and experimentally mastered being so enor- 
mously great. Cox, next to Turner, is the English land- 
scape-painter he admires. He himself paints wholly from 
memory, with notes taken on the spot — not from full 
sketches on the spot, nor yet (now) from the scene itself. 
He intimates that he can refigure to himself, with extreme 
precision and completeness, the scene he requires to paint, 
with all its mental and accidental associations. . . . 

Tuesday, 21 May. — Gabriel has been taking-up his old 
design of Hector and Cassandra, and would fain set to work 
at painting it. His enthusiasm for blue pots has gone to the 
extent of buying from Marks two most sumptuous hawthorn- 
pots with covers (the only covered ones in the market, he 
says) — price ^^"120. For this he is to paint a picture, and 
will cover a previous account by making it worth i^200. . . . 

Wednesday, 22 May. — Dunn, whom I met the other 
day at Howell's, is now being employed by Gabriel on 
a copy of his Beatrice in a Death-trance. . . . 

Thursday, 23 May. — Met Swinburne and others at 
Brown's. S[winburne] considers Matthew Arnold more 
satisfactory as a poetic writer than either Browning or 
Tennyson. Morris's poem of Jason is just out, and 
S[winburne] purposes reviewing it in the Fortnightly. . . . 
Jones is occupied on finishing the pictures he has had 
in hand this goodish while for Birket Foster. . . . 

Wednesday, 29 May. — Gabriel has begun a portrait of 
Mrs Leyland. Miller, Whistler, and other friends, at 
Chelsea. Much discussion about Turner — W[histler] being 



234 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

against him as not meeting either the simply natural or 
the decorative requirements of landscape-art, which he 
regards as the only alternative. . . . 

Monday, 3 June. — Hotten tells me that he has under- 
taken to bring out a photographic copy of Blake's /^Tz/Wifw, 
and I think some of the other books — the edition to be 
limited to 100 copies. He is looking after a cast of Blake 
from life (or death) in the possession of Richmond, with 
a view to engraving it in Swinburne's book. 

Tuesday, 4 June. — Nolly Brown and his Father brought 
round to Chelsea the water-colour by the former of Queen 
Margaret and the Robber, which is certainly a singular 
achievement for a boy of thirteen or twelve.* . . . 

Wednesday, 5 June. — Ordered of Marks framing for 
various Japanese coloured prints which I purpose hanging 
in a continuous band round the new sitting-room — also 
some further prints of sam.e class. . . . 

Tuesday, 11 June. — My Fine Art-f reached me com- 
pleted. . . . Roberts Brothers propose to publish the few 
prose tales etc. written by Christina.:j: . . . 

Thursday, 13 June. — Met Palgrave. , , . He suggests, as 
a subject for me to take up, a collection of the memorable 
observations on art made by English artists : and I am 
not indisposed to see to this in course of time.§ Gabriel 
occupied on a water-colour of a girl leaning on her arms 
out of window. II Whistler, with whom we dined, has been 
written to by the Burlington Club that, if he does not 
resign on account of the Haden row,^ they would have 

* He was in fact, at this date, only a little turned of twelve — having 
been born in January 1855. 

t I.e., the book (old articles re-printed) called Fine Art, chiefiy 
Contemporary . 

X This was not done. 

§ I did make a compilation of this kind. It has not yet been pub- 
lished, but possibly may be. 

II Must be the water-colour entitled The Rose. 

IT I need not enter into the details of this matter, a difference between 
Mr Whistler and his Brother-in-law Sir Seymour Haden. A few 
particulars, affecting myself chiefly, appear in the sequel. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 235 

to consider of his expulsion : if he resigns, his money would 
be returned. Gabriel and I agree in considering this very- 
improper, as it amounts to condemning one member, un- 
heard, on the ipse dixit of another. , . . Gabriel prepared 
a letter to Wornum* expressing this view : and I have 
made up my mind to resign if W[histler] is expelled. . . . 
Mrs W[histler] f is shortly about to return for a while to 
America, partly out of sympathy to many of her friends, 
now reduced from affluence to penury. ;j: W[illiam] 
W[histler],§ who saw much of the Southern prisons, denies 
that the Northern prisoners were ill-treated there, though 
straitened (as were the Southerners themselves) in some 
cases : he has no knowledge however of Andersonville. . . . 

Saturday, 15 June. — Meeting Wornum, I talked-over the 
Whistler affair with him. It seems that Haden said it would 
be impossible for him to remain in the Club if W[histler] 
did so. . . . The Committee . . . thought they might them- 
selves not be safe with W[histler], and they therefore 
suggested to him to resign. I pointed out to Wornum 
that it was not fair to ask him to resign without first 
asking him to explain ; also assured him that there was 
no practical ground for alarm on the part of the Committee, 
or even of Haden while within the Club. Wornum informed 
me that, after their first letter and Whistler's reply thereto, 
the Committee have now invited an explanation from 
him ; and, after a good deal of talk, I got him to admit 
that the right time for doing this would have been befoi'e 
asking him to resign. I told Wornum that, if Whistler 
is expelled, I shall resign ; but shall not do anything in 
the way of agitation or caballing meanwhile. , . . 

Sunday, 16 June. — Sent to The Atlantic MontJdy the 
first two papers of Stillman's Cretan Days. Told Thornton 
Hunt that S[tillman] ceases to write for the Telegraph. . . . 

* Mr Ralph N. Wornum, Secretary to the National Gallery, was then 
Secretary of the Burlington Club, 
t The Painter's Mother. 

; /.e., impoverished through the American Civil War, 
§ A Surgeon, Brother of the Painter, 



236 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Fi'iday to Tuesday, 21 to 2$ Ji(?/e. — Moving into 56 Euston 
Square. . . . 

Friday, 5 July. — . . . Gabriel has very nearly finished his 
half-figure of Mrs Leyland, and has written three lines of 
Italian verse for it,* on the Poliziano model of style. Morris 
has sold some 250 copies of his Jason — the last 100 of them 
somewhat rapidly. 

Thursday, 1 1 July. — Got my pictures in the drawing- 
room hung, and the bulk of the Japanese prints for the 
dining-room. Howell (who dined here with his cousin f) and 
Gabriel much pleased with the effect. Showed H[owell] the 
photograph sent me by Kirkup from the drawing whereon 
(as he believes) Dante drew the shape of his cranium, and 
wrote his name. H[owell] agrees with me in thinking the 
name very suspicious ; he says that the flourishy lines scored 
underneath it are rarely if ever found in mediaeval or other 
than quite modern autographs. 

Friday, 1 2 July. — Dodgson (the Oxford man and photo- 
grapher) writes to Christina to say that a friend of his, 
Rivington, would much like to illustrate either of Christina's 
volumes, and would do it at little cost. D[odgson] sends a 
design by R[ivington] from Passing Away ;\ which, though 
not advanced in execution, is finely felt, and a good deal like 
what C[hristina] herself might do if she knew enough to 
draw. . . . 

Sunday, 14 July. — Left London in the morning, and got 
out at Rugby for a day with Tupper ; who seems fairly well 
and comfortable, but perhaps not receiving a very cordial 
recognition from the School and other authorities. . . . 
Tupper 's class has hitherto been two hours in the week ; 
but, with many natural sciences now studied, it has 

* The lines are certainly these : when I was compiling the Collected 
Works of Dante Rossetti (1886), I had not identified the subject 
of them : — 

" Con manto d'oro, collana, ed anelli, 
Le place aver con quelli 
Non altro che una rosa ai suoi capelli." 
t Miss Kate Howell, afterwards his wife. 
t The design remains in my possession. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 237 

dwindled to one hour, and T[upper] thinks it will continue 
on the wane. 

Monday, 1 5 July. — . . . Left at noon. 

Tuesday, \6 July. — Came on to Penkill. . . . Penkill is a 
delightful habitation, though dark on a day like this, and 
the grounds immediately about are exquisite as far as I 
can yet judge them. Scott's pictures on the staircase * have 
a very good effect, decidedly superior even to what the 
cartoons indicate ; they are both lightsome in effect, almost 
gay, and in invention solid and thoughtful. The part 
chiefly (or perhaps alone) attacked by damp is in the picture 
of the King's first sight of the lady. . . . 

Thursday, 18 Jidy. — ... In coming home went about 
the grounds of the house named The Warden. The family 
have moved into a modern house here, and left the old 
house to become a ruin, and a very good one it is. I 
suppose parts must be as old as 1500 or older. Picked-up a 
mole in coming along — the only one 1 ever saw walking 
about above ground ; he was going along at a good trundling 
pace. Began writing on Longfellow'' s Dante for TJie Chronicle : 
also made acquaintance with the scriptural dramas of Zachary 
Boyd, c. 1620, one of the Boyd family, going through the 
drama of Jonah. They are most racy specimens of the 
period, and have an ample share of solid merit. . . . 

Saturday, 20 July. — . . . Went down with Miss B[oyd] 
to where she is painting in the glen, and afterwards with 
S[cott] to the further end of the glen — in the direction of 
Dailly : it is full of beautiful glimpses. Miss B[oyd] proposed 
that I should sit to S[cott] for a head in his Palace of Venus, 
which head he had originally begun with some idea of 
resembling it to me, but afterwards finished it up with little 
or no such resemblance. I sat accordingly, and he repainted 
the head ; which is now, I think, quite recognizably like 
me. . . . 

Monday, 22 July. — The rains of yesterday and to-day, 
sometimes drenching, have swollen the waters of the glen 
to a great extent : Scott says they make more show and 
Illustrating the poem by James I. of Scotland, The King's Quair, 



238 ROSSETTi PAPERS 

noise than he ever remembers, and their impetuous rush 
is really a noble sight. . . . 

Monday, 29 July. — We accomplish this day the drive 
and walk to old Kilkerran Castle, which is a noticeable 
ruin hard by a picturesque stream. Amused ourselves some 
while by throwing branches of trees etc. into the stream, 
and seeing whether they would be carried into and out 
of the cup-like depth of flowing water called the Devil's 
Punch-bowl. Continues fine weather. 

Tuesday, 30 July. — My last day at Penkill. . . . 

Friday, 2 August. — Started to Paris. . . . 

Monday, 5 August. — ... In the evening to the Fran^ais 
to see Hernani — a great crowd at the queue, and the house 
cram-full. Much applause, especially at some Jletrissure of 
the aigle iniperial. Favart is very fine in the last scene, and 
Delaunay as Hernani seems to me on the whole successful 
— Bressant as Charles V., reasonably so — Mauban as Ruy 
Gomez, somewhat heavy. The great effectiveness of the 
play does certainly not relieve one of the sense of its arti- 
ficiality and want of real nature, but it is excellently 
effective. . . . 

Wednesday, 7 August. — Found Courbet's exhibition at 
the top of the Pont de I'Alma : the great Hallali au CerJ'xs 
dated this year. There is a book at the entrance for sig- 
natures and opinions of visitors : I left (perhaps better 
not have done so) the following with my name : " Gustave 
Courbet c'est un veritable maitre qui se joue parfois trop 
de ses admirateurs en peignant en ecolier." Settled to buy 
photographs (6 francs apiece) of the Feuinie au Perroquet 
(I think the drapery has been darkened since last year, and 
deteriorated) and the Fawns by a Stream. Visitors seem 
very few. . . . 

Saturday, lO August. — Bought some Japanese books and a 
ditto bear from Madame Dessoye. Returned to London. . . . 

Thursday, 15 August. — . . . . Howell . . . says that there 
appears a considerable prospect of Ruskin's marrying again 
shortly : he could not mention the lady's surname, but her 
christian name is Rose. . . . 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 239 

Tuesday, 2J August. — . . . Brown came in, and much 
discussion ensued as to modern social art (as Stevens and 
Tissot), and the prospects of Enghsh encouragement to art 
under a reformed Parliament : of this Brown has consider- 
able hopes, but not Gabriel. I incline to say there will 
be a definite, though not perhaps very great, improve- 
ment. . . . 

Friday, 30 August. — Visited the Portrait -Exhibition at 
South Kensington, now about closing. Struck generally 
by the poorness of personality in the sitters from Hogarth 
onwards, contrasting with those of William IIL and Anne, 
and not specially impressed with the vitality even of the 
art. There are several admirably pure and vital Gains- 
boroughs, however — most specially Lady Ligonier, the 
mistress of Alfieri, a full-length : but in most of his bust- 
portraits there is next to no form — only a face and a 
charming suavity of hand. Reynolds's Mrs Abington in 
some hoydenish stage-part is wonderful, with some others. 
Generally, however, my estimate of him is not reinforced 
by this exhibition. Some of his more elaborately costumed 
royal or noble personages are very well treated in this 
respect. . . . 

Saturday, 31 August. — Gabriel tells me that . . . Brown 
has received from Leyland an order for his smaller Chaucer 
picture for ;^525. . . . 

Thursday, 5 September, — Dined at Scott's, meeting Dr 
Littledale * for the first time : he seems as far removed 
as possible from an ascetic, being far the most jocular 
man at table : says that Whitley Stokes, in India, now 
makes an income of some ^^2300. L[ittledale] is one of 
the extremest Irishmen in point of brogue that I ever 
met. . . , 

Friday, 6 September. — . . . Hotten proposes to me that 
I should edit a selection of Whitman's poems, to be published 
by him, first naming the price I should require : this I will 
very gladly attend to. My principle of selection would be 
to miss out entirely any poem, though otherwise fine and 
* A Clergyman of the advanced High-Church Party. 



240 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

unobjectionable, which contains any of his extreme crudities 
of expression in the way of indecency : I would not expur- 
gate any such poems, but simply exclude them. H[otten] 
says that Swinburne's Song of Italy has been the reverse of a 
commercial success. . . . 

Monday, 9 September. — . . . Wrote to Hotten proposing 
to do the Whitman Selection for ^25, and twelve copies of 
the book. Conway sends me a letter from Burroughs relative 
to my Whitman article in TJie Chronicle. . . . 

Friday, 13 September. — Hotten (after first saying the 
utmost he could afford is ;^2o) agrees to my terms about 
Whitman. . . . 

Monday, 16 September. — Called at Cayley's invitation to 
see him and the Leifchilds in Hunter Street. F. Leifchild, 
. . . the last time he was in Italy, spent some time at Lerici, 
close to the villa, or balconied castle, wherein Shelley had 
resided : he found an old man there who recollected Shelley 
and his ways. S[helley] used to go about wherever there 
was sickness in a house, nursing and advising. The place is 
gloriously beautiful. . . . 

Saturday, 2 1 September. — Gabriel back last night from his 
visit to Allingham, and called in Euston Square : he thinks 
of going down again by the end of next week. . . . 

Sunday, 22 September. — Began writing my introduction 
to Whitman. Conway called, and showed me the large 
photograph of W[hitman] lately sent over, with his auto- 
graph. He denies that Emerson has ever turned against 
W[hitman], but on the contrary admires him quite as much 
as he ever expressed in writing : he also got Lincoln to 
approve W[hitman]'s going to the camp-hospitals, with no 
remuneration (W[hitman] stipulated there should be none) 
but with the ordinary camp-rations. . . . 

Sunday, 29 September. — Howell, now back from his 
wedding-trip, dined at Chelsea with others. . . . Linton back 
from America, and about to return thither ; collecting 
materials for his History of Wood-Engraving, and looked 
with this intention at various Japanese woodcuts, which he 
highly admires. Scott, whom I told that I would dedicate to 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 241 

him my Selection from Whitman. Gabriel complains much 
of his eyes, and fears the evil is organic, not merely a symptom 
of dyspepsia or the like. He says that sunlight or artificial 
light becomes increasingly painful to him, producing giddi- 
ness etc. ; and that, from one day a few weeks back onwards 
when he became distinctly conscious of something wrong 
with the sight, it has gone on continuing and getting worse 
in the same way. Most of us thought the thing might be 
merely symptomatic, but all agreed in advising him to see 
an oculist without delay. Linton says that a revolution in 
Rome is all prepared, and only waiting some needful funds. 

Monday, 30 September. — Elihu Burritt * called on Christina, 
and produced a very agreeable impression : I alone did not 
see him. Finished my writing-work on Whitman. , . . 

Thursday, 3 October. — Gabriel came to Euston Square. 
His eyes are still in a state to cause anxiety, and he now 
finds that even the gas-lamps in the streets affect him dis- 
tressingly. Much serious talk connected with this matter. . . . 
He is wanting to consult Bowman the oculist at once, but 
finds him just now out of town. G[abriel] says that he has 
already made ;^2000 this year. . . . 

Sunday, 6 October. — Holman-Hunt called, being lately 
back from Florence. He looks thin and fagged. . . . The 
picture he has been doing in Florence is an Isabella with 
the Pot of Basil ; the costume etc. being made later than 
Boccaccio's time. It is a life-size work, and substantially 
finished. . . . 

Tuesday, 8 October. — Gabriel has now seen Bowman. I 
don't learn that B[owman] gives a very definite opinion as 
to the nature of the case, but he recommends G[abriel] to 
give-up work for a month or so. 

Wednesday, 9 October. — Hunt and Woolner dined at 
Euston Square. H[unt] proposes to go off to Jerusalem 
towards Christmas. . . . 

Saturday, 19 October. — By pursuing Bowman's directions 

* I am not quite sure whether the name of Elihu Burritt is now much 
remembered in England. He was an American, a man of some mark, 
often called " the literary blacksmith." 

Q 



242 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

to bathe his eyes with cold water, Gabriel has got them 
fairly right again these few days past : to-day not quite so 
right. He has now finished his water-colour of Tristram and 
Yseult drinking the love-potion. . . . 

Monday, 21 October. — Began reading {Leslie's Autobio- 
graphy) with an experimental view towards a suggestion 
made to me a little while ago by Palgrave — to form a volume of 
axioms concerning art, the practice of artists, etc., written by 
British artists. After getting some small sample of the material 
together, I think of offering the volume to Macmillan, or 
possibly Hotten : I should omit all artists who appear to me 
bad or indifferent in art — such as O'Neil. The Editor of 
The Broadway writes to me a second time (I declined the 
first) asking me to contribute. . . . 

Saturday, 2 November — . . . . Called on Swinburne, who 
has planned out the two concluding dramas for a Mary Stuart 
trilogy, and begun the first, with Bothwell for central figure : 
also a long narrative poem of Tristram and Yseult, and various 
political poems. . . . 

Tuesday, 5 November. — Houghton called at Somerset 
House. He says that he draws his wood-cut designs straight 
off on the block, taking as a rule only some two to three 
hours per design : he sees nothing incredible in the state- 
ment that Dore had done some 40,000 designs by the age of 
twenty-nine. . . . Gabriel, last Sunday, in stirring up one of 
the Virginian owls out of his box, had the misfortune of 
pulling one of his claws out : he bled much, but did not 
appear in any great rage, nor has as yet shown particular 
suffering or distress. Gabriel asked Jamrach what he could 
get a young African elephant (!) for — answer ^400. This 
is not exactly feasible ; but a Laughing Jackass is being 
bespoken, and enquiries made after a marmot and one or 
two other beasts. . . . 

Friday, 8 November, to Sunday, 10 November. — Saw 
Woolner's fine bas-relief of Virgilia, medallions from The 
Iliad for Gladstone's bust etc. The Laughing Jackass has 
come (according to a letter from Gabriel) to a sudden and 
melancholy end — drowned in a tub of water. . . . 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 243 

Tuesday, 12 November. — Sent to Routledge my blank- 
verse of the Coroner's Inquest,* of which he wishes to know 
the length. 

Wednesday, 13 November. — Routledge accepts this poem, 
and proposes to get it illustrated, suggesting Gabriel for 
that purpose. . . . 

Friday, 15 November. — Gabriel is not prepared to under- 
take the design for my blank- verse, which I have now decided 
to call Mrs Holmes Grey : he made a sketch however of the 
death-scene.f Leyland got us to dine with him and a Mr 
Harlan at the Wellington. They both told us, as coming 
from a Captain Coppin of Londonderry, and also related by 
a city-man Mr Allan, three or four extraordinary super- 
natural events with which Captain C[oppin] has been con- 
nected. One is that the spirit of one of his deceased children 
revealed to a sister, before the M'Clintock expedition, the 
exact bearings of the sea-passage which would lead to a 
discovery of the Franklin remains ; that Coppin wrote this 
off to Lady F[ranklin] ; that the expedition searched 
accordingly, found the data correct, and discovered the 
relics ; and that Coppin holds a letter from Lady F[ranklin] 
fully acknowledging these facts. Harlan seems to be well 
acquainted with Coppin, and has this account from himself: 
he has not however seen Lady F[ranklin]'s letter. 

Saturday, 16 November. — E. Routledge called at Somerset 
House, and I agreed to write for The Broadway articles on 
Ruskin and Browning. We agreed upon Houghton to 
illustrate the coffin-scene in my poem, though R[outledge] 
would have preferred Watson. Conway sends me a letter 
to him from Whitman concerning my Selection. He 
authorizes me to make such alterations in words as I may 
consider needful for decency. This would, I think, enable 
Hotten to bring out at once a modified complete edition, 
instead of a mere Selection. Saw the Chinese Horned Owl 
at Chelsea in the morning. 

Sunday, ly November. — Wrote to Hotten, Conway, and 

* I.e., the poem named Mrs Holmes Grey, written in 1849. 
t I have no knowledge now of this sketch. 



244 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Whitman, about the edition or selection question ; advocat- 
ing the edition if H[otten] is willing to go in for it. . . . 

Tuesday, 19 November. — Hotten decides to bring out 
the Whitman Selection as at first planned, but with a clear 
intimation of a projected complete edition. . . . 

Wedtiesday, 20 November. — Gabriel says that he will 
probably have made i^3000 this year, by the close of it. 
He sold the other day chalk-drawings (female heads etc.) to 
the value of ;^300, £\^o each to Leyland and to Valpy * (for 
the latter the drawings remain to be done). He has been 
reducing his debts considerably, still owing about ;^ 1 000. . . . 

Friday, 22 November. — Swinburne's appeal for mercy to 
the Fenians condemned to death at Manchester appears in 
to-day's Morning Star : however, it has not availed. . . . 

Monday, 25 November. — Gabriel says one of the young 
dormice has been devoured by the others. His eyes seem 
to be as well again as if nothing had been wrong with them. 

Tuesday, 26 November. — x'\nother young dormouse has 
met the same fate. Gabriel has been making some chalk- 
studies of head and shoulders (from Miss Wilding) for the 
Andromeda picture.f . . . 

Thiu'sday, 28 November. — Routledge showed me the 
wood-block with Houghton's design for Mrs H\olmes'\ Gi'ey : 
it is very satisfactory. Conway sent me a letter he has 
received from O'Connor, author of The Good Grey Poet. He 
intimates that Whitman, though resigned, is not really 
pleased at the publication of a mere selection from his 
poems ; while 0'C[onnor] himself views it with great distaste, 
as practically a concession to the outcry against W[hitman]'s 
indecencies. 0'C[onnor] has written another letter (not yet 
in Conway's hands) setting forth the points he would wish 
insisted on in any prefatory work of mi'ne. I replied to him 
in cordial terms, but to the effect that the Preface and part 
of the Selection are now in print, and cannot well be re- 
modelled. . . . 

* As to Mr Valpy see p. 267. 

f The picture which he called Aspecta Medusa. He designed it, but 
never painted it. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 245 

Thursday, 12 Deceviber. — A dinner at Whistler's (his 
Brother, Tebbs, and Jeckyll,* with myself), and grand dis- 
cussion as to the campaign of to-morrow, when the motion 
for his expulsion from the Burlington is to come off. . . . 

Friday, 13 December. — Whistler's expulsion was voted by 
19 against 8. . . . W[histler] spoke some home-truths. . . . 
Tebbs moved . . . my written proposal to take no action 
at this late end of the year. Scott seconded, and this had a 
good chance of passing if Whistler would have intimated 
that he would not renew his subscription : but he declined, 
and then the main vote passed against him. ... I handed 
in my resignation to Wornum. , . . 

Saturday, 14 December. — At Swinburne's request, met 
Routledge (editor of The Broadivay) at S[winburne]'s house. 
S[winburne] offers him various things, and handed over a 
short Boccacciesque tale, Mouna Lisa : it will occupy about 
three pages. . . . S[winburne] has received from Mazzini 
a very gratifying message regarding his poem for the 
Fenians : M[azzini] has of late been too unwell to write, but 
he is now resuming. Is staying at Lugano. 

Sunday, 15 December. — Revising proofs of the Whitman 
Selection, now approaching its close — and writing for TJie 
Broadway an article on Ruskin. . . . 

Monday, 16 December. — Received a most friendly and 
indeed affectionate letter from Whitman. Writing in reply 
to a (now superseded) suggestion that the London book 
should be made a slightly modified complete edition instead 
of a Selection without alterations or omissions, he expresses 
a strong objection to the plan ; but readiness to put up with 
it rather than traverse any arrangements which may be 
actually in course of completion. I wrote back explaining 
that the plan of a Selection has been reverted to. . . . 

Tuesday, 17 December. — . . . Gabriel has now sent-in 
his resignation to the Burlington Club. . . . 

Thursday, 19 December. — Macmillan, to whom 1 had 
written offering the Selection I am making from the criticisms 
of Artists on Art, declines to undertake it, on the ground of 
* Mr Jeckyll was an architect. 



246 HOSSETTI PAPERS 

the ill-success of my Dante and Fine Art. He sends me the 
accounts for these two books to 30 June last, showing about 
£60 for me to pay on the first, and about f^j/^ balance against 
himself on the second. Mamma, who had from the first set 
aside £^0 to meet expenses on the Dante^ offers to pay also 
the extra £\o. Received the last proof of the Whitman 
Selection, and added a brief P.S. to relieve him from all 
responsibility in connexion with it. . . . 

Friday, 20 December. — . . . Scott, Brown, Jones, Howell, 
and others, dined at Chelsea. A good deal of talk about 
Whistler; about Linton's History of Wood -Engraving, 
which Morris and Webb would have stop at Bewick, on 
the theory that all wood-cutting since then has been wrong 
in principle — etc. . . . Gabriel has got two more Laughing 
Jackasses. . . . 

Sunday, 29 December. — Hunt called at Euston Square, 
seeming in better trim and spirits than before. His Isabella 
picture is very nearly but not yet entirely finished. He 
contemplates going back through Italy, and on to Damascus 
perhaps, rather than Jerusalem. On my asking him which 
pictures in Italy he remembered with especial pleasure, 
the first he named was Titian's Jerome in the Brera. . . . 



138. — Dora Greenwell to William Rossettl 

[The term "your Criticism" means my small volume 
on Swinburne.] 

W. Evans, Esq., Allestree Hall, Derby. 
16 January 1867. 

Dear Mr Rossetti, — Have I your leave to keep your 
Criticism a little longer? It is indeed a beautiful and 
wonderful piece of writing, and, to me, unlocks the door into 
a new realm. I mean as regards art generally, — all that bears 
particularly upon Swinburne interests me less closely. ... I 



BARONE KIRKUP, 1867 247 

have not read all Swinburne's poems — only Atalanta, the 
splendid Hymn to Proserpine^ and the bits one comes across 
in reviews. ... 

What strikes me (among other things) as entirely new 
in your essay, and to me more valuable than words can 
express, is its high sense of the value of art as art. I 
have been long convinced of the truth of Schiller's canon, 
" that a direct aim is fatal to a work of imaginative beauty." 
Still I think I have always been used to look upon music, 
finish, and rhythm, as mere aids to the expression of thought 
and feeling. Now, I see that they are in themselves sources 
of beauty and delight, and to be prized accordingly. . , . 
The truth seems to be that there are wonders and glories 
tvrapped 7ip in the common aspects of nature and life, 
which art detects and sets free. — How true is what you 
say of your Sister's art, that it is the natural necessary 
result of affinity, giving what it finds. 

When I am at home and settled, I want to write to you 
upon the Pagan element, which seems to me to enter inevit- 
ably into all high and free literature and art. Your Sister does 
not agree with me in this — nor Miss Ingelow, nor anybody; 
which makes me feel sure I am right. Athanasius against 
the world ! Thanking you for the great pleasure of your 
essay, believe me yours very sincerely, 

Dora Greenwell. 



139. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossettl 

[These surprising statements regarding Dante etc. may 
be best left without comment. Under the date of 12 July 
occurs the phrase " 50 days." Kirkup wrote " 80," but that 
is clearly a mistake. — The last paragraph of the extract 
refers to Lorenzino de' Medici — or Lorenzaccio, as he is 
called in Alfred de Musset's drama — the assassin of Duke 
Alexander de' Medici in the sixteenth century.] 



248 HOSSETTI PAPERS 

2 PONTE VECCHIO [FlORENCE]. 
19 January 1867. 

My dear Rossetti, — Trelawny says Mazzini is the greatest 
man of his age (I suppose after Garibaldi), and both infinitely 
above any Bonaparte, or any other successful traitor of 
modern times, — as much as a Washington is above a Bute. 
Trelawny is an ?//tra-lihera.\, and has never studied any 
religious question (having no evidence) ; but has the greatest 
contempt for all the absurdities that go by that name, and 
all the atrocities. . . . Trelawny is not only my best friend 
but the best I ever heard of — ^' qjicgli aii 20 chiamo privio de^ 
miei aniici." * His incredulity extends to my spiritualism. 
... I avoided all theories and opinions, and stuck closely 
to facts only. That has been my rule for twelve years ; I 
have kept a journal all that time, now iti its seventh volmne ; 
and it is but a slight one, which I regret, — mere notes, 
and far from containing everything. But, as it was not 
written for the world, and is only a memorandum-book for 
myself, it will some day be a curiosity if it is preserved. 
Now no one would believe it. 

You ask about the memorable fact of Dante's drawing 
and writing. It is one of the most remarkable — ecco. I 
refer to my journal, — 

"12 Oct\ober'\ 1865. — This evening Bibi (my little 
daughter, aged 12) slept. She said there were five (there 
had been four spirits lately). There was Dante. He looked 
young, she said, about twenty or twenty-two : she is no 
judge of age. He is handsomer than the many portraits 
of him in my room. (When he first appeared to Regina 
he was like the mask, old — they all improve). I inquired 
about his dress : — no capucdo, but something green. I told 
her she was mistaken. It must be red, the lining of the 
cap turned back, making a red stripe ; that Regina said 
he was like a capo rosso, by which she meant a goldfinch 
(this was on the 29th November 1854). 

" y January 1866. — This evening Bibi, and Olimpia her 

* " The one whom I call first among my friends " : a quotation from 
Dante. 



BARONE KIRKUP, 1867 249 

maid (an ex-Nun and a somnambule), said that it was 
Dante who had influenced the Minister, Natoli, to recom- 
mend me to the King ; so the other spirits said." 

After many manifestations not connected with this 
subject, on the 15th April 1866, both Bibi and Olimpia saw 
Dante in their sleep with the four usual spirits. He is 
very handsome, and younger than formerly ; a wreath on 
his head (the green which B[ibi] had seen before) ; his 
hair black, his cap under his arm. He said, unasked, that 
it was he who influenced the ministers and King for my 
knighthood and Barony, He promised to help me in 
getting his portrait by Giotto restored once more. He will 
advise me what to do next Thursday (he did not, it was 
forgot). He is for the union of Italy, and the expulsion 
of the Germans. *' Did you help your son Jacopo to find 
the Cantos of the Paradiso missing at your death ? " — Si. — 
Is anything hidden in your house in Piazza San Martino? 
— No. — Can you find or direct us to any piece of your 
hand-writing, however small ? — Cerchero, e ti diro Giovedi.* 
— He could not. On the i6th April Dante renewed a 
promise which he had made to become visible to me. 
Nothing came of it. Now then — 

On the 28th April 1866 I asked him if he would draw 
for me the shape of his head and hair on a paper on which 
I had drawn his face, younger and handsomer than his 
portraits. He refused at first, but at last consented. We 
fixed the time, but he did nothing and put it off. After 
many other events he appeared to Bibi with the usual 
four others on the 19th of May. It was in her sleep 
(magnetic). I had drawn him younger than the portrait 
by Giotto ; and, as that was the most difficult part, I 
asked him to fix a time when he would draw the form of 
the head, as I had never seen any portrait without his 
cap : and he did not refuse to add the hair, and the wreath 
to it, as he appeared to Bibi. She is likewise a writing 
medium ; and her mother's spirit made her write on the 
2 1st May, " Dante will tell us to-morrow when he will draw 
* I will see to it, and tell you on Thursday. 



250 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

the head." On the 22nd he promised to take the drawing 
to-morrow, in the usual way that other things have often 
been taken and returned as amulets. 

23 May. — It was taken this day. 

I will give you an idea of my precautions against tricks 
and cheating. 

The features alone were drawn by me on a piece of 
drawing-paper the size of this page.* It was laid on a 
small board, and placed on a chair with a pencil by its 
side, in the middle of a small room or closet, 13 feet by 3; 
with a window at the end, left open on purpose. The only 
door was double-locked, and the key in my pocket. The 
door was then sealed, with slips of paper and the seal-ring 
on my finger ; and, besides which, in the hinges were con- 
cealed small twigs of fire-wood as small as a needle, 
unknown to any one, which, if the door were opened, must 
fall to the ground. (These are my usual precautions in 
fastening the door : the window open). I found the door 
all right the next day when I opened it and went in. The 
board was there, but the drawing and pencil were gone. 
The window is 60 feet above the river. I had asked 
Dante some days before to add to this favour by writing 
his name to it. I did not explain luhy. 

7 June. — Dante had fixed on yesterday to bring back 
the drawing finished, but he never did. He now promises 
it to-morrow to Olimpia in her sleep. — The 8th. He has 
not brought it back. . . . Our spirit-party had lately been 
increased by the Spirit of Marietta, Olimpia's younger 
sister, a spirit of high order. Four of our spirits now left 
us, and went to the army — Isaac, Giovanni, Count Ginnasi, 
and Dante : Regina and Marietta alone remained. They 
came back several times to give us news of the war before 
it was known in Florence. Dante was with Garibaldi, and 
saved his life by turning- aside a ball that would have 
killed him. So he said. Many curious details are in my 
journal. On the 4th of July Dante would have brought 
back the portrait ; but did not, because I was not aware 
* The page measures about 8 inches by 5. 



BARONE KIRKUP, 1867 251 

of it, and had not secured the door of the room in my 
usual way as a security against tricks. It was again 
promised on the nth, but never came: and it was again 
promised for the next day. Marietta made yesterday a 
sort of excuse for his not drawing so well as he could 
when he was in this life, and that he found it difficult to 
manage the pencil. We shall see. 

1 2 July. — Sure enough it was brought back. 

The door had been securely closed as usual — lock, seals, 
and twigs. Noon was the hour appointed. I had looked in 
at half-past eleven. There was the board on the chair empty. 
I sat down to write close to the door, and there was no one 
else in the house at that time. It is fifty days since it was 
taken, the 23rd May. 

The paper has got rumpled and creased a little, and the 
drawing rubbed. The outline of the head is quite distinct, 
but fainter than [the] rest, and so is the wreath — not laurel, 
but more like rose-leaves. The name is written large and 
strong — a sort of Gothic — I think about the fifteenth century ; 
and it agrees admirably with Leonardo Aretino's description 
of his hand-writing in his Life of Dante, of which I have a 
MS. of the date 1455. The letters long and upright, Dante 
A//ighieri, with two I's. The pencil was returned and placed 
by the side of the drawing, which I have put in a frame under 
a glass, and is hanging in this room. I will try if it is 
sufficiently strong to be photographed. Would you like 
one ? . . . This drawing is real, and has been seen by a 
hundred persons ; like Home's name which he wrote on a 
ceiling in the presence of many, and remains there still. 

Have you heard the story of his fortune ? The news- 
papers have made a silly romance of it, full of lies, even the 
Florence papers. I have it from him. We are old friends, 
and I have seen much more extraordinary things in his 
presence, though not so important as fortunes or titles, but as 
physical phenomena : the frequent risings of my humble 
supper-table, that is frequently off the ground nntoudied, and 
rises to be kissed by each person present, as many times as 
there are spirits, at the name of each, and which beats time 



S52 tlOSSETTI PAPERS 

when Bibi sings, changing tunes and measures and tattoos as 
correctly as a Capo-banda, and answering all our questions 
by raps with its feet on the floor ; 3 for yes, i for no, and 2 
for uncertain. . . . 

I have the great medal of Lorenzino, and two or three 
others. It is taken from the bust (in the gallery) of Brutus 
by Michelangelo, and is very like it. Lorenzino was short, 
but stout and very strong. . . , — Yours sincerely, 

Seymour Kirkup. 



140. — STAUROS DILBEROGLUE to WiLLIAiM ROSSETTI. 

[Mr Dilberoglue was a Greek merchant long settled in 
London : he had been known to me for two or three years in 
connexion with some other Greek families, especially the 
Spartalis. My " friend's letter," to which he here refers, was 
a letter from Mr Stillman regarding Cretan affairs.] 

13 Barnsbury Park, Islington. 
28 January 1867. 

Dear Mr Rossetti, — . . . The extract of your friend's 
letter is most valuable. Could you give me date of letter 
and name ? provided you do not wish the name to be kept 
unpublished. 

Our committee has had so much to contend with, in order 
that all adverse influences exercised against it might be 
counteracted, that it has restricted the area of his operations 
only within Greece ; so it cannot use any modicum even of 
its means for the purpose you name. . . . 

The issue of the struggle is inevitable ; and still there is 
not ojte statesman in Europe yet who can take the initiative, 
and appear the creator of all that is to follow ; as in crystal- 
lization, as soon as the right shock is given to the masses of 
facts in the very act of crystallization now. Do help us in all 
you can. ... I shall read your letter to the committee ; and 



SIR FREDERICK BURTON, 1867 253 

all I learn, worth knowing, I shall take the liberty of trans- 
mitting to you. . . . — Yours in esteem and appreciation, 

Stauros Dilberoglue. 



141. — Sir Frederick Burton to Madox Brown. 

[It is apparent from this letter that Brown had some wish 
to become a member of the Society (the " Old Society ") of 
Painters in Water-colours ; he was not, I fancy, willing to 
pass through the subordinate grade of Associate. But I 
believe his candidateship was never brought to any practical 
issue. I do not observe that the matter is mentioned in Mr 
Ford Hueffer's book concerning Brown.] 

43 Argyll Road, Kensington. 
I March 1867. 

My dear Brown, — Thanks for your kind note. ... I very 
much wish indeed that you might be enrolled amongst the 
members of the S[ociety of] P[ainters in] W[ater-colours], and 
that we might see your works upon the walls. And you may 
be sure that I shall not only be ready but anxious to further 
any wish you may have in that direction yourself 

At the last meeting, being deprived by Holland's absence 
of even his support, and not knowing otherwise how the wind 
might lie, I thought it more prudent to be silent on the 
subject, especially as I did not know with any certainty what 
you desired. Besides, I knew there were certain men whom 
the majority desired to get in. . . . 

I hope you and I shall have many opportunities of meet- 
ing before another occasion of the kind occurs, when we can 
talk over the matter. — Believe me always sincerely yours, 

Fred. W. Burton. 



254 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



142. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossetti. 

[The phrase " you remember Trelawny " relates to a very 
old affair. In 1843, when I was thirteen years of age, 
Trelawny called in my Father's house once or twice, and he 
had occasion to speak to me,] 

Florence, P[onte] Vecchio. 
6 March 1867. 

My dear Rossetti, — , . . I send you by this post the photo 
of Dante's writing and drawing ; I hope you will get it. . . . 
The writing is, I think, a century or two more modern, but it 
agrees wonderfully with Leonardo Aretino's description. . . . 

I have just seen H. Hunt. I like him much : he seems 
a man of great sensibility. As for his works, I know 
nothing. . . . 

So you remember Trelawny. He is a magnificent, 
magnanimous fellow and friend ; but perhaps too much of a 
republican for you — not for me ; and he is the sincerest of 
men, and the great enemy of priestcraft, the greatest friend 
of Shelley. You know his (Trelawny's) two biographies. 
They are immensely popular on the Continent. I have seen 
five editions of his first life in French and English. . . . 

My somnambula, Olimpia, tells me that Dante is Gari- 
baldi's angelo custode. He never comes but when Garibaldi is 
in Florence, which I always know by that. I met G[aribaldi] 
in the street the other day. I said nothing to her ; and sure 
enough Dante came, and she did not know it, though D[ante] 
told us where he, G[aribaldi], was lodging. He was always 
with him during the war. He, D[ante], is no longer a 
Ghibelline, but a Republican ; again and above all a 
Unionist and Antipapal. He always agreed with your Father, 
when nobody in Florence did. Our medium was a young 
girl, unlettered, and could hardly read at sixteen ; and, as I 
required some better proof than her word, he gave us some 
indubitable physical demonstrations beyond the reach of 
fraud. . . . 



BARONE KIRKUP, 1867 255 

You ask why the window of the small room is left open. 
It always is, by their desire, that they may take the object. 
They cannot get it through stone walls, though they can pass 
themselves. There is no window beyond it, as it is a corner- 
house, and there is none over it ; and the chair is in the 
middle of the room, not close to the window. My studio is 
the next room to it, where I mostly sit, and where you once 
sat. . . . 

The photograph I by this post send you is very good and 
exceedingly correct, even the creasing of the paper (it was 
quite smooth when I placed it), and the drawing has been a 
little rubbed. 

Home's fortune is ^^"27,500 consols in his name, and the 
promise of an inheritance of ^5000 a year. I don't know 
Mrs Lyon's maiden name, but her late husband was a relation 
of Lord Strathmore. She promises him a town-house well 
mounted, and they are now coming abroad. . . . 

Remember me to Swinburne. He is our champion 
against tyranny, temporal and spiritual. 

I like Hunt immensely : he was with me last evening. 
He will go soon : that is the worst of being abroad. Adieu, 
my dear friend. — Yours ever, 

S. KiRKUP. 



143. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossettl 

Florence, 2 Ponte Vecchio. 
23 March 1867. 

My dear Rossetti, — , . . You tell me your younger Sister 
is delicate. Take care of her, and in time. I was given over 
forty years ago for consumption : I never saw any living 
being so far gone. I was saved by Sir James Clarke. ... I 
lived entirely on asses' milk and a bit of bread three times a 
day ; and after a fortnight the milk began to disagree with 
me, and he substituted Iceland moss for another fortnight, 



256 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

and kept me afterwards on low diet, attending to my liver 
and stomach, which had been the original cause of (really) 
purulent disease of the chest. But, on seeing me cured, he 
supposed it had been confined to the membranes and lining 
of the lungs, with all the usual hectic symptoms to the 
greatest degree. Travelling is dangerous on account of 
exposure, but staying in a warm climate is another thing. 
. . . There is a spot under the hill of Fiesole that seems 
to cure everybody — much more than Pisa or Nice. . . . — 
Sincerely yours, 

Seymour Kirkup. 



144. — Dante Rossetti to Oliver Brown. 

[My Brother always retained his liking for Oliver Brown's 
first painting. Queen Margaret and the Outlaw ; which was 
indeed a very remarkable effort for such a youth, incompar- 
ably superior to anything done by Dante Rossetti himself at 
any like age ; and for some years he kept it by him. I think 
he made it over to the bereaved Father, soon after Oliver's 
death in November 1874.] 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
10 May 1867. 

My dear Nolly, — On reading your nice letter I only 
deferred writing in answer because I thought I would examine 
the drawing afresh when it came, and thank you for it with a 
full impression of its beauty at the moment. But now, 
on looking at your letter again, I find you actually ask me 
beforehand whether I will accept your present ; so let me 
hasten to say Yes before it comes. 

I assure you I consider it very beautiful both in design 
and colour, and a first effort of which you need never be 
ashamed, however much you may advance as an artist. 

Hard study and application are not to be dispensed with 
by any one entering on art ; but it is something to make such 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1867 257 

a beginning as this, and so feel sure that, though without 
labour no perfection can ever be attained, still there is no 
doubt of your labour to become a complete artist being really- 
worth your while, and not a mistaken course in life, as it is 
with many. 

I shall value this first work of yours most highly, and 
make no doubt of the verdict of all good judges who will see 
it being the same as my own as to your future career. Next 
year I hope your Father will agree with me that you should 
aim at exhibiting something, — With sincere affection and 
good wishes, believe me, my dear Nolly, most truly yours, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 



145. — Dante Rossetti to Oliver Brown. 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
[1867—? May]. 

My dear Nolly, I am sending some painting materials for 
your acceptance. The more I look at your drawing, the more 
I see you are well able to use them. . . . 

I showed your water-colour to Mr Whistler after you 
were gone, and he admired it very much indeed. . . . — Yours 
affectionately, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 



146. — William Rossettl— List of Subjects for 
Pictures. 

[It must have been towards May 1867 that I began 
noting down, from any miscellaneous reading, subjects which 
struck me as being suitable for pictures : perhaps my list 
may be thought worth perusal. I am rather sorry that I 
dropped it after a brief term — only very recently resuming 

R 



258 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

it. The reader (even if not versed in questions of fine art) 
will readily perceive that, while there are thousands of most 
interesting incidents recorded in history, biograph}', etc., 
only a moderate percentage of these are adapted for being 
treated as pictures — this percentage consisting of those 
subjects which can pretty well explain themselves to the 
eye, apart from antecedents and consequents that cannot 
be embodied in the picture.] 

1. AthencEiim, No. 2063, p. 622. — Marie Antoinette in 
prison counted the dirty linen for the laundress, and Louis 
XVI. wrote out the list. 

2. Cancellieri, Originalitd di Dante, p. 17. — Marsilio Ficino 
and Michele Mercati promised that whichever died first 
would bring to the other some news of the other world. 
Ficino being dead, a knock came at Mercati's door in 
San Miniato : he, looking out of window, saw a white man 
on a white horse, who disappeared, saying " Vera, vera, sunt 
ilia." 

3. Longfellow's Inferno, p. 215, from Odyssey, B. 11. — 
Clytemnestra slays Cassandra, while Agamemnon, dying, 
clutches at his sword. 

4. Ditto, p. 217, ditto. — Minos, seated, with golden sceptre, 
gives laws to the dead who plead their causes before him. 

5. Ditto, p. 221, yEneid, B. 6. — y^neas meets Dido in 
Hades, and tries to soothe her. She remains moveless with 
eyes on the ground, and finally retires to Sichaeus in a grove. 

6. Haniel, Histoire de Robespierre, vol. 3, pp. 639-40. — 
About 1794 it was a practice for people of all sorts to dine 
together in the streets or spaces of Paris etc. : as, ladies with 
their servants. Aristocrats with Sansculottes, etc. 

7. Hay don s Life, vol. 2, /. 165. — Chaucer beating a Fran- 
ciscan in Fleet Street, for which he got fined (Lamb proposes 
this subject). 

8. Michelet, Jeanne D' Arc, p. 47.— After the battle of 
Patay, June 1429, Joan, seeing an English prisoner knocked 
on the head and mortally injured by his captor, held his 
head, and got a priest to attend him. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1867 259 

9. Mizcrai, Histoire de Ei'ance, vol. 2, /. 376. — Godefroi, 
Bishop of Amiens, 12th century, refused to give the Eucharist 
one day to men of fashion who presented themselves wearing 
long and elaborate hair. They cut off their hair on the spot, 
and the Eucharist was then given them. 

10. Ditto, vol. 2, p. 406. — St Louis, taken prisoner by the 
Saracens in Egypt, compelled to witness the flagellation of, 
and other insults to, a Crucifix. 

11. Ditto, vol. 3,/. yG. — God presented a plan of religious 
association (la Sainte Trinite de la Redemption des Captifs), 
confirmed by the Pope, 1209, to Jean de Matha, a Provencal 
gentleman and doctor of theology, and Hermit Felix, both 
retired to a solitude near Meaux. 

12. Ditto, ditto, p. 181. — Year 1357. A freebooter, 
Arnauld de Cervoles, calling himself I'Archipretre, held 
the Pope to ransom in Avignon ; and then made him give 
absolution, and treat him at dinner with the respect due 
to a sovereign prince. 

13. Ditto, ditto, p. 307. — Year 1408. Pope (or Antipope) 
Benedict sent Sancio Lupi and an equerry to the King of 
France to threaten an excommunication. The messengers 
were seized, set up on a scaffold, with paper mitres and 
painted dalmatics bearing Benedict's arms, and preached at 
very severely by a Docteur. 

14. Ditto, ditto, p. 309. — A mediaeval Noyade, 1408. The 
Bishop of Liege having regained his power, great numbers 
of the opponents were thrown into the Meuse, tied two and 
two, besides other executions on a vast scale. 

15. Ditto, ditto, p. 353. — Henry V. of England, after his 
victories in France (142 1), while besieging Dreux, was 
warned by a Hermit of his injustice, and threatened with 
divine punishment. He paid no attention. 

16. Ditto, ditto, p. 412. — The Dauphin (Louis XL), aged 
about 22, gave iin soiifflet to Agnes Sorel at Chinon. 

17. Ditto, ditto, p. 459. — Louis XL (to divert attention 
from other matters) caused the stags, kids, fawns, storks, 
swans, cormorants, talking birds, and other pet animals, to 
be seized throughout Paris. 



260 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

1 8. Ditto, vol. 5,/. 222. — Henri III. (towards 1577) held 
a feast in which women dressed as men, in green, served at 
table : all the guests in the same colour. 

19. Ditto, ditto, p. 223. — Catherine de' Medici, in return, 
gave a feast where the handsomest ladies of the Court served, 
with their bosoms displayed and hair dishevelled. 

20. Ditto, ditto, p. 262. — Cir. 1583. Henri III. would go 
masking in the Carnival, and indulging in all sorts of 
dissipation : and in Lent joining in processions of penitents. 
(Suppose midnight on last day of Carnival, and Maskers 
and Penitents in presence of one another.) 

21. Ockley, History of the Saracens, pp. 11 5-6. — A.D. 633. 
Caulah (a young virgin) and other Arabian women, having 
been taken prisoners by Peter and other Damascenes, set 
themselves close together (on the halt between place of 
capture and Damascus), and defended themselves with tent- 
poles, killing many Christians. Peter was in love with 
Caulah. At last Kaled, Derar (brother of Caulah), and 
other Arabs, came up, and delivered the women. 

22. Ritchie, Early Letters of fane Carlyle. — Carlyle in 
London (towards 1836) smoking a long pipe on the top of a 
cistern (for want of accommodation indoors). 

23. Livy. — Camillus at Falerii. A traitorous Pedagogue 
of Falerii, which city was at war with the Romans, had 
tempted a number of boys of the highest families into 
Camillus's tent. Camillus had the Pedagogue stripped and 
bound, and got the boys to whip him back to Falerii. 

24. Ditto, B. 8, p. 122. — Various Roman Matrons were 
arrested as poisoners. Cornelia and Sergia maintained that 
the poisons were merely medicines. They were told in 
court to drink the liquors. They and others of the accused 
drank, and all died. A.U.C. 424. 

25. fosephus, p. 761. — Herod entered the sepulchre of 
David, and extracted thence masses of jewels and gold 
ornaments. Proceeding inwards to view the corpses of 
David and Solomon, he was assailed by a miraculous 
flame, which killed two of his favourites. Night-time. 

26. Gardiner's Cromwell, p. 170. — Cir. 1655. Cromwell had 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1867 261 

not money to pay his army. Some of his Guard entered 
his kitchen, walked off with provisions, and told Cromwell 
to his face that they must pay themselves in kind. 

27. Ditto, p. 174. — Cir. 1656. General Pride, when the 
Bear-garden, Southwark, was kept up in spite of various 
edicts, slew the bears with his own hands, and closed the 
show. 

28. Encyclop(Edia Bntanmca ; article, Vesta. — Stilicho's 
wife, Serena, went to the Atrium Vestae, Rome, and 
appropriated a precious necklace from one of the statues. 
The last remaining Vestal Virgin remonstrated, but in vain. 

29. Home's Life of Napoleon, vol 2, p. 16. — Night of 13 
October 1806. Napoleon, on the eve of the battle of Jena, 
found that Lannes's Artillery had got jammed in a ravine. 
He ordered the soldiers to cut away the rocks on either 
side. They did so, with the " park-tools," Napoleon holding 
a lantern for a group of soldiers : and thus the Artillery 
was got out. 

30. Ditto, ditto, p. 467. — Napoleon at St Helena in 
1 8 16, in riding, saw some labourers ploughing. He dis- 
mounted, took hold of the plough, and traced a long 
furrow, 

31. Ford M. Hueffer, The Cinque Ports, p. 313. — In the 
time of King Egbright, about the 7th century, a noble 
lady named Domnewa was at her prayers. The Devil 
put out her candle, and her Guardian Angel re-lit it, 

32. Mathilde Blind, a Letter to rnyself, dated 22 fuly 
1 87 1. — In 1 812, at Lymouth, Devonshire, Shelley had a 
fancy for launching fire-balloons. On one such occasion 
his wife Harriet and the servant-girl (afterwards Mrs 
Blackmore) were present ; also the landlady Mrs Hooper, 
who got alarmed at the risk of firing her thatched roof 

33. Mr Gledstanes Waugh, a Letter to myself dated 
1873. — A person whom he met at Great Marlow informed 
him that in boyhood he had seen Shelley on the Bridge of 
Marlow, returning home from a walk, his person much 
beset with tendrils of plants. 

34. Constajit, Menwires sur Napoleon, vol. 2, /. 54- — 



262 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Napoleon, before going to bed, entered the petit salon of 
Constant (his Premier Valet de Chambre) and other attend- 
ants ; and, finding one of them reading a novel, he grabbed 
it, and threw it into the fire. 

35. Ditto, ditto. — On another day, in the morning. 
Napoleon threw into the fire some book of his own. His 
Mameloiik Roustan stooped to pick it out, but Napoleon 
prevented him. 

36. Ditto, ditto, p. 60. — Napoleon kept gazelles at St 
Cloud. With Napoleon, and with him alone, they were 
very tame, and eagerly ate snuff which he would present 
to them in his snuff-box. 

37. Ditto, vol. 3, p. 237. — Sometimes Napoleon got his 
boy-nephew. Napoleon (son of Louis), to offer the snuff- 
box to the gazelles ; and he would afterwards set the child 
astride of one of them. This boy died at the age of seven, 
two years before the divorce of Josephine. 

38. Ditto, ditto. — Napoleon was with Josephine in the 
Tuileries after a review, and had laid aside his hat and 
sword. The child Napoleon accoutred himself in the hat 
and sword, and went up and down humming a march-tune. 
The Emperor kissed him. 

39. Ditto, vol. 4, /. 38. — In July 1808, after appointing 
Joseph to be King of Spain, Napoleon was at Agen. An 
old man aged a hundred and fourteen, named Printemps, 
who had fought under Louis XIV., was presented to 
him. Napoleon made him sit down, and himself sat beside 
him, chatting, and saying : " Vous avez entendu parler 
de moi dernierement ? " — He got Printemps to speak of 
his campaigns. 

40. Ditto, vol. 5, /. 37. — On the lawn at Trianon, when 
Napoleon's son was a year old, he put his sword-belt on 
the infant's shoulders, and his cocked hat on his head : then, 
going some steps off, he held out his hands to the child, 
who still tottered. 

41. Due dc Stilly s Memoirs, vol. y, p. 312 — quoting from 
Sanval. — Henri IV., at the Church of St Gervais, was along 
with his mistress the Marquise de Verneuil, listening to a 



JOHN RUSKIN, 1867 263 

sermon delivered by the Pere Gonthier, a Jesuit. The 
Marquise and other court-ladies were chatting and trying to 
make Henri laugh. Gonthier turned towards him, asking 
when he would leave off consorting with his seraglio in the 
House of God. The ladies were incensed, but Henri soon 
afterwards expressed himself obliged to Gonthier for the 
admonition. 



147. — John Ruskin to William Rossettl 

[Mr Ruskin was a vigorous adversary of the Northern 
States of the American Union in their Civil War against 
the slave-holding and seceding Southern States. My sym- 
pathies were strong in the opposite direction. Mr Ruskin 
wrote a series of letters to Mr Thomas Dixon, the Cork- 
cutter of Sunderland ; they were printed at once in some 
newspaper, and eventually in a volume entitled Time and 
Tide by Wear a?id Tyne. In the course of the corre- 
spondence Ruskin wrote something about the American 
War ; and Dixon replied, mentioning me as being one of 
those who differed from Ruskin on the subject. Then 
Ruskin responded, saying something to the effect that my 
notions regarding the war were of no account as compared 
with Carlyle's, and that my knowledge of fine art was 
simply what I had learned from Ruskin himself and from 
my Brother. Seeing this statement printed in the news- 
paper, I wrote to the illustrious author, deferentially query- 
ing whether he had adequate evidence on which to found 
this opinion concerning the fine-art matter. His reply was 
as follows. It intimates that the passage would be re- 
trenched from the reprint in volume-form, and so it was. — 
'' Old J. D. Harding " was a landscape-painter of some skill 
and repute, who had given Ruskin, then a very young 
man, a certain amount of instruction in the art. — I am 
unable to acquiesce in Mr Ruskin's idea, respecting 
Japanese art, that " my Brother crammed his crotchets 



264 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

down my throat." That my Brother admired Japanese 
art to a very large extent is a fact : I did the same, and 
was, of the two, the more decided " Japoniseur."] 

Denmark Hill. 
27 May 1867. 

Dear Rossetti, — Thanks for your kind note. I never 
had any intention of keeping that phrase in the reprint ; 
but I strictly wrote those letters as I would have done had 
they been private — though I knew they would be published. 
They are to be read as a little piece of permitted exposure 
of one's inner mind — for special purpose. Carlyle was 
furious at what I said of ///;//, but I didn't care. That 
also goes out in reprint. 

Of course, in a saying like that, " inference " va sans 
dire — one can't say " as far as I can judge " : and of course 
also the lateral and confirmatory work is supposed. I 
should not have minded a bit old J. D. Harding's saying 
of me, " I taught him all he knows about art." If I knew 
a thing or two more, it was quite natural in him not to 
see it. He could only speak as he saw — and in a certain 
sense. All teaching is but the beginning of things. — Ever 
affectionately yours, 

J. RUSKIN. 

Lest you should think this an equivocal sort of backing 
out of the thing, I will tell you exactly the feeling which 
gave origin to the sentence. When we had our last talk 
over Japan art, my soliloquy to myself was simply this : 
" What a pity that fellow — ingenious as he is — lets his 
Brother cram his crotchets down his throat ! I wish I 
hadn't lost sight of him for so long ; I would have kept 
him straighten" 

Then I've . . . become much more arrogant and sulky 
than ever I was — and I was bad enough before. 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1867 265 



148. — James Leathart to Dante Rossetti, 

N ewcastle-on-Tyne. 
30 May 1867. 

My dear Rossetti, — . . . With respect to your proposition 
to pay back the money paid on account of the Found picture, 
I have to say that I should very much prefer to receive the 
picture ; and, if you will permit one who has for a long time 
derived much pleasure from your works and taken a deep 
interest in your success to give advice, I should strongly 
recommend you to finish this work without delay. If by a 
little reflection you can get yourself into the proper vein, I 
am sure it will be a short business for you to complete the 
picture ; and in so doing you would add, not only to my 
satisfaction, but in my opinion to your present eminent 
position as an artist. I am vain enough to believe you would 
be as glad to see the picture upon my walls as upon almost 
any other — at all events, none would be prouder of it than I 
would. As soon as you have thought over the matter, let me 
hear from you : and, if you are still indisposed to finishing the 
picture in a moderate period, I shall be quite willing to accept 
your proposal. . . . — Ever yours truly, 

James Leathart. 



149. — Dante Rossetti to James Leathart. 

[This letter bears no written date. It appears to be a 
reply to the last preceding letter from Mr Leathart, and I 
therefore date it as under. The sum which Mr Leathart had 
advanced for the picture Found was actually repaid by 
Rossetti in November 1869.] 

[16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
? 5 June 1S67.] 

My dear Leathart, — The question to which you recur in 
your letter — i.e., that of my completing the picture for you — is 



266 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

one which I have so long found, whenever I have turned my 
mind to it, to be under the circumstances continually im- 
practicable, that I cannot believe it would be of any real use 
attempting again to entertain it now. I have therefore only 
to express my satisfaction at your acceptance of my proposal, 
and to thank you for the kind expressions in your letter, as 
well as again for the course you have pursued all along in the 
matter. On my side, I will trust, by applying myself to the 
payment of the debt as speedily as possible, and by doing my 
best with the little picture which forms part of our fresh 
arrangement, not to leave an impression on your mind of my 
having behaved badly in the long run. — With kind remem- 
brances to Mrs Leathart and all yours, I am, my dear 
Leathart, yours very truly, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 



150.— Dante Rossetti to Mauox Brown. 

[" The Jacob picture " is commonly termed Jacob and 
Joseph's Coat — the Brothers of Joseph bringing his blood- 
stained coat of many colours to Jacob. Mr Leyland bought 
for ;^84 the water-colour version of this composition.] 

[16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
24 June 1867.] 

My dear Brown, — I was near coming down with Leyland 
to-day. . . . He was talking to-day with great admiration of 
the Jacob picture, so I told him of the water-colour of it. He 
said he had caught a glimpse of the same, but you withdrew 
it. So I told him we'd go together, and I would undertake 
he should see it. I think he would be sure to buy that or 
something. He asked the price, and I said I supposed 100 
guineas. He then said that in that case he got the Elijah 
cheap at 80. So I said I did not know the exact price. If 
you object to my bringing him, let me know. I think he is 
well disposed. — Your 

D. G. R. 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 18G7 267 



151. — William Allingham to William Rossetti. 

41 Kensington Square. 
30 June 1867. 

My dear William, — Though I hope to see you in a day or 
two, I will not omit in the meantime to thank you for your 
book, which I received and have partly read with much 
pleasure and satisfaction on various grounds. Your art- 
criticisms appear to me the most trustworthy of our time — 
sound in principles, wide in sympathies, often subtle, yet 
always distinct and reasonable ; and your volume will do 
much good, I hope. If you can only get it driven into the 
head of the British public, as something beyond dispute, that 
a picture ought first of all to be a picture, it will be a 
" platform " for every kind of art-knowledge of which that 
public is capable. . . . — Yours always, 

W. Allingham. 



152. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown, Calais. 

[Calais was Brown's native place, although in blood he 
was entirely British : he had now gone thither for a brief trip. 
— The " maniac named Valpy " was a solicitor, who in the 
sequel had some considerable purchasing-transactions with 
my Brother : I hardly remember how the latter knew him 
first — perhaps through Howell as connected with Ruskin, or 
it may be through Smetham. He was not at all a maniac, 
but was something of a sentimentalist, of a nervous and 
flurried turn : a conscientious gentleman, of high and fidgeting 
standards in life. He was often called "The Vampyre" by 
my Brother and by Howell. This was little or nothing 
beyond a perversion of the name Valpy. The rumour also 
ran — I suppose erroneously— that he was the original of the 
effusive and tearful solicitor Baines Carew, in the Bab Ballads 



268 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

of Mr W. S. Gilbert. — The statement that Rossetti's Tibulliis 
was " a dead 'oss " must mean that, being already sold to some 
one else, it was unavailable for eliciting coin from Mr Valpy.] 

[16CHEYNE Walk, Chelsea. 
July 1867.] 

Dear Brown, — I'm sorry to say I shall have to use your 
cheque on Monday. I am at present still waiting for 
Agnew's visit. If with good result, I can easily lend the 
sum again. How you manage to have a banking-account 
I don't know. I never can. 

I hope you are enjoying yourself at Calais, and that 
Emma benefits. Love to her. . . . 

There is a maniac named Valpy whom I shall bring to 
see your things when you are in London again, and who 
I think would buy something. He wanted to have my 
Tibullus the other day, but couldn't — more's the pity, it 
being a dead 'oss, or at any rate knacker. — Your 

D. Gabriel R. 



153. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown, Calais. 

[" Frith's big daub " was King Charles the Second's last 
Sunday.'] 

16 Cheyne Walk. 
2sJitIy 1867. 

My dear Brown, — I suppose you are still in Calais, as I 
have heard no more of you. 

I have some very good news for myself to tell you. I 
have been designing the Perseus and Medusa subject ; and 
yesterday Mr Matthews the Brewer came to see the design, 
and commissioned the picture for 1500 guineas. It is a 
very straightforward work, and will not involve delay or 
great labour ; so this is a capital thing for me. Moreover, 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1867 269 

though he would prefer a half-life scale, he is willing if I like 
to take it life-size ; so that I have it all my own way. Now 
what I want is a studio. Shields has suggested having an 
iron one put up in the garden, which he says he believes 
could be done in a week or two, and for about ^loo. Do 
you know anything of such things? If so, I wish you would 
write me a word thereanent. I confess I rather dread iron ; 
still, if the cost were so small, it might be looked on as only 
a temporary convenience, and at any rate would not turn 
the house topsy-turvy while doing. 

When are you coming back ? Mr Matthews is a queer 
character, — seems to buy all sorts. Frith's big daub in the 
R.A. belongs to him, also Hunt's Afterglow (do you 
remember what he gave for it ?), Solomon's AmphitJieatre , 
Millais's Ransom, lots of Pooles, and many other things. 
He thinks of building a Gallery, and may, I dare say, turn 
out permanently useful. . . . — Your affectionate 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 



154. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
5 August 1867.] 

My dear Brown, — Cormorants, porpoises, and great sea- 
serpents, are so rife in these latitudes that I am only able 
to save £\^ from their clutches at this instant, which I send, 
and this zvitJi perfect comfort. The other 10 shall come very 
soon. 

I shall be looking you up again one evening, and getting 
you to fix a day to come and consider the studio-question. — 
Your affectionate 

D. Gabriel R, 



270 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



155. — John Burroughs to Moncure Conway. 

Office of Comptroller of the Currency, Washington. 
10 August 1867. 

Dear Mr Conway, — . . . We were deeply impressed 
with Mr Rossetti's article in The Chronicle. It is a grand 
and lofty piece of criticism. It was not till the third reading 
that I saw the full scope and significance of it. I am sure 
Walt feels very grateful to him and to yourself. The article 
has had its effect here. The Round Table copied the con- 
clusion of it, and completely reversed its verdict of a year 
ago. The Nation, Times, etc., copied also ; and now The 
Citizen appears with the article entire. We shall circulate it 
well. Our cause gains fast. The leaven is working and no 
mistake. The Editor of The Galaxy, Mr Church, wrote 
O'Connor the other day saying he would like a poem from 
Walt for his Magazine, and suggested for theme the harvest 
which the returned soldiers have sown and gathered. The 
proposition was well received by Walt ; and a few mornings 
afterward he fell to work, and in a couple of days had finished 
the piece. Church writes back that it is splendid, and will 
appear in the September number of his Magazine. It is 
called A Carol of Ha^^vest for 1867. It is one of his grandest 
poems, and I think will take well. . . . — Truly yours, 

John Burroughs. 



156. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
15 August 1867.] 

My dear Brown, — Dreffle bad, ain't it ? 
All would be well as to the £10, were it not that I had on 
Monday to send that very sum to Lizzie's brother Harry, 



BARONE KIRKUP, 18G7 271 

who ha^ had the small-pox ; and (what is worse) I have 
reason to fear at present that it may have been lost in the 
post, though registered. However, I suppose I must draw on 
Leyland on my own account, and can then do the needful. I 
wished to avoid doing this further till all his daubs were 
daubed ; but other matters than yours will force me to it, I 
fear. As for the wretch Gambart, his d — d ;^200 (minus 5s. 
which he stopped for something like cab-hire) are had and 
spent now — and now he wants more done to the drawings, 
and has left two of them with me. Let him write, and won't 
he get it ! — this at least will be a tit-bit. I'm on the right 
side of the hedge this time. . . . — Your affectionate 

D. G. R. 



157. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossettl 

[Kirkup wrote in this letter that he remembered " the 
death of Louis XV." That is impossible, for Louis XV. 
died in 1774. I have substituted, what he must have 
meant, "XVI."] 

Florence, Ponte Vecchio 2. 
27 September 1867. 

My dear Rossetti, — Your letter is very encouraging in 
regard to your Sister's health. She is mending certainly, 
but still you cannot be too careful. The climate is un- 
favourable and she is delicate, and we have the bad season 
before us : warmth on the skin is absolutely indispens- 
able. . . . 

Swinburne has a noble energy. I imagine his relations 
are against him. What is the Admiral ? They are mostly 
Tories. His uncle Lord Ashburnham was, when young. 
Nelson was a horrid one. I knew him both alive and dead. 
I was at his funeral, and stood next to Charles Fox in St 



272 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Paul's ; and I was afterwards at Fox's funeral, and saw the 
old Duke of Devonshire crying as he walked with Lord 
Carlisle in the procession. How old I am ! I was at 
Hastings's trial, and remember the death of Louis XVI. ; 
and I remember every note, sung at the theatre, of " How 
stands the glass around," by one who performed General 
Wolfe. My early memory is much stronger than later. 

Garibaldi has been arrested. There were mobs and 
riots, and troops all night out, — two or three killed. All 
quiet now. They say that Bonaparte threatened to send 
back the French to Rome, the first Garibaldian that crossed 
the frontier ; and that Rattazzi answered that the first 
French soldier who set his foot in Italy would relieve the 
Italians from the promise of non-intervention. . . . — Yours 
sincerely, 

S. KiRKUP. 



158. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[This jocular sonnet may pass for what it is worth : 
little would be gained by translating it. Brown, I find, 
had written an Italian letter to Rossetti, in which he spoke 
of Mr Dunn ; and taking that name as if it were " Done," 
he translated it into " Fatto." Rossetti replies, joking on 
his friend's name. Ford Mad-ox Brown, and Italianizing it 
as " Guado Pazzobue Bruno " ; and he speaks of Mr Dunn 
as being a creditor. I suppose this is mostly a mere joke 
upon the word " dun " ; though it is quite possible that at 
this date Mr Dunn was really entitled to some salary as 
yet unpaid. I don't think that in my Brother's time the 
neat conundrum had been invented — " Why is a dun like 
an ornithorhynchus ? " — " Because he is a beast with a bill." 
If Dante Gabriel had known of that conundrum, I should 
have been sure to hear it from his mouth at one time or 
another.] 



F. T. PALGRAVP:, 1867 273 

i6 Cheyne Walk. 
24 October 1867. 

Messer Dante a Messer Bruno. 

Essendo pazzo, il bue al guado intoppa, 

E volta e sfugge e d'acqua vh. digiuno ; 

E tu, pittor, che come lui sei Bruno, 
Temendo un detto, dici cosa zoppa. 
Acqua di guado no, ma vino in coppa, 

Domanda il labbro al timoroso core 

Dovendo nominare il creditore ; 

E manca il dir, che la paura e troppa. 

" Fatto " lo chiami ; e piu tremendo fatto 

Che il creditore non dimostra il sole 
Ad uomo sano, ovvero a bue ch'e matto. 

Impazziti voltiamo le parole 
leroglificamente in "gufo" o "gatto" ; 

E I'uom non osa dir quel che gli duole. 

Dear Brown, — Having finished my sonnet in a caviling 
spirit worthy of Italian correspondence, I find I've been too 
sleepy to say I'll attend to your injunction. Are you 
asking any friends not artists ; and, if so, whom ? . . . — Your 

Gabriel. 



159. — F. T. Palgrave to William Rossetti. 

[Perhaps I need hardly explain that "Jason" is the poem 
by William Morris, The Life and Death of Jaso}ii\ 

5 York Gate. 

25 October 1867. 

Dear Rossetti, — ... I am delighted to see that Jason 
reached a second edition. I heard very favourable things 
about it from A. Tennyson (who came with me for three 
weeks last autumn into Devonshire), but I have seen no 
other judge of poetry who knew it except Woolner. I reckon 
much — indeed more — on his Tales ; because Jason appears 

s 



274 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

to me too long and weak a fable for effect, however skilfully 
treated. I had a pleasant two days' visit from Allingham 
also — whom, by the by, I forgot when writing . . . above. — 
Ever truly yours, 

F. T. Palgrave. 



i6o. — Stauros Dilberoglue to William Rossettl 

31 Threadneedle Street. 
29 October 1867. 

Dear Mr Rossetti, — In answer to your kind communica- 
tion of yesterday I herein enclose names of the Committee 
of the Candian Refugees' Relief-fund. . . . 

Many thanks for Stillman's paragraphs. " L'ultima che si 
perde e la speranza ; " let us hope. The funds of the Com- 
mittee are exhausted, and we now subscribe, amongst our- 
selves, all we can for monthly remittances to the women and 
children out of Crete. The ladies too have unhooked-and-eyed 
their pin-money, and are investing in gowns and shawls for 
these good creatures. I wish I could pray to the Virgin 
Mary for them as I did when I was a child, but now I 
cannot : Macbeth could not say Amen ! After all, I don't 
know that knowledge is power ; I think feeling is, and 
science perhaps. 

With kindest respects to your Mother and to all of your 
house, Japanese prints included, believe me in affection and 
esteem yours, 

Stauros Dilberoglue. 



161. — Walt Whitman to Moncure Conway. 

[This letter was sent on to me by Mr Conway, for my 
guidance in making the Selection from Whitman's Poems, 
soon afterwards published by Mr Hotten. The end of the 



WALT WHITMAN, 1867 275 

letter was at some time cut off — perhaps to serve as an 
autograph.] 

Washington. 
I November 1867. 

Dear Friend, — My feeling and attitude about a volume 
of Selections from my Leaves by Mr Rossetti, for London 
publication, are simply passive ones — yet with decided satis- 
faction that, if the job is to be done, it is to be by such hands : 
perhaps too " good-natured," as you advise — certainly not ill- 
natured. I wish Mr Rossetti to know that I appreciate Jiis 
appreciation, realize his delicacy and honour, and warmly 
thank him for his literary friendliness. I have no objection 
to his substituting other words, leaving it all to his own tact 
etc. . . . Briefly, I hereby empower him (since that seems to 
be the pivotal affair, and since he has the kindness to shape 
his action so much by my wishes, — and since, indeed, the 
sovereignty of the responsibility is not at all mine in the 
case) to make verbal changes of that sort wherever, for 
reasons sufficient to him, he decides that they are indispens- 
able. I would add that it is a question with me whether the 
introductory essay or prose preface to the first edition is 
worth printing. 

"Calamus" is a common word here. It is the very large 
and aromatic grass, or rush, growing about water-ponds in 
the valleys : spears about 3 feet high, often called sweet 
flag — grows all over the Northern and Middle States (see 
Webster's large Dictionary — Calamus, definition 2). The 
recherche or ethereal sense of the term, as used in my book, 
arises probably from the actual calamus presenting the 
biggest and hardiest kind of spears of grass, and their fresh, 
aquatic, pungent bouquet. 

I write this to catch to-morrow's steamer from New 
York. It is almost certain I shall think of other things — 
moving me to write you further in a week or so. . . . 



276 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



162.— Warington Taylor to Dante Rosst:tti. 

[I put here a batch of letters from Mr Taylor, the 
Manager of the Morris Firm. It appears to me that they 
were probably written towards the late Autumn of 1867, 
but I cannot say with any certainty. — The name " Ned " 
will be understood to mean Burne-Jones. — I am not clear 
what Mr Taylor refers to as " the decoration of the Palace" 
by Mr Webb : possibly the decoration of the Refreshment- 
room etc. in the Victoria and Albert Museum,] 

7 Beach Cottages, Hastings. 
[? Aictuinn 1867.] 

My dear Gabriel, — Very, very pleased to see your hand- 
writing; such a pleasure during this dreary time here. I 
think now I shall get through this winter. . . . 

The firm's affairs are consolatory. The profits represent 
I think about 28 per cent, on work done, a little over ;^3000 
worth of work during the year. After two years' experience 
I conceive the matter stands thus : — 

1. We do about ;^2300 worth of windows in a year — 
roughly stated, twenty windows, all sizes. 

2. Considering this to be the quantity of work done, 
nothing but the highest prices can pay. 

3. This amount of work we shall always get ; therefore it 
is only loss of time to do cheap work. 

Morris and I never get hot with one another save on 
the subject of price. He is always for a low price : seeing 
the amount of work we do, it is absurd. We must have a 
long price ; and it must be considered not as so much per 
foot, but as so much for a painting in glass. In the manner 
we now work — that is to say, very finished, and with designs 
containing twice or three times as much drawing as they did 
three years ago — we ought never to have less than £2. lOs. 
to ;^3 per foot, with the extra amount added on to this for 
all new designs by Ned, Morris, Webb. This is the point 



WARINGTON TAYLOI^, 1867 277 

I am always fighting", and have generally managed to get 
my own way after a swear and curse. The result we see. 
Another point is this : Morris and Ned will do no work 
except by driving, and you must keep up the supply of 
designs. Every design less than we get is so much less 
window. Last year I look upon as very fortunate in this 
line, for Ned did little painting, and consequently I got an 
unusual quantity of designs from him. But this should be 
considered the outside amount we should ever get from him. 

One more thing, and I have done with shop. I have on 
excellent authority heard that ordinary firms like Lavers 
and Barraud, when they do a window with designs by 
Holiday, charge over £'i, per foot, nearer £4. They pay 
Holiday ^^15 per figure — a coloured cartoon. 

With reference to papers, — the cutting of the block for 
our last new paper (the branches of pomegranate, orange, 
lemon, nectarine) cost ^15 the block, trial-prints about 
£1. I OS. This is all. You must be careful to make the 
design " English size." . . . 

Very glad to hear that your market is good. 

Have you been to see Webb's chef-d'ceuvrc, the decora- 
tion of the Palace? It must be very stunning. 

I hope to be in town by middle of March. Wife unites 
in best wishes. — Yours ever, 

W. Taylor. 



163. — Warington Taylor to Dante Rossettl 

[Hastings. 
? Aufwnn 1867.] 

My dear Gabriel, — Having commented on the firm's 
affairs from the couleur-de-rose side, I must give you better 
statistics than you have yet. If Webb's report to me of 
the meeting is correct, all I can say is that the whole 
question has never been looked at at all in a business-like 
point of view. 



278 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Last }'ear we did over ;6^2000 of stained glass. This 
ought to have given ;^500 profit at least, i.e., 25 per cent. 
On stained glass we did not make more than half of this 
amount. Therefore stained-glass business is not satisfactory 
— our prices are plainly not high enough. If we cannot get 
higher, then the business is not remunerative. ... I consider 
the balance-sheet shown to you as showing to the utmost 
farthing the firm's profits. If / had made it, it would have 
been at least ^^150 less. It was decidedly couleur-de-rose. 

The large profit you had put before you was not made 
on stained glass, but on the Palace decorations. The whole 
of that work was done by Webb ; if Webb had been busy 
with architecture, it could not have been done. You could 
never depend upon such work again. Moreover, Webb was 
miserably paid for his designs. This is no fault of the firm's, 
for Webb would not have more. He never will charge above 
a third of what he ought to charge. 

It was settled, I believe, to divide profits, but you 
apparently settled no amount to be divided. . . . Then 
there was no sum settled for working capital. 

As to increasing salaries, it won't bear what it pays now. 

I know well the tendency at Queen Square to make life 
comfortable ; anything rather than face death or a fact ; 
hence the prosperous appearance of everything. Morris 
won't have any of the sours of life — can't get him to face 
them at all. — Yours, 

W. Taylor. 



164. — Warington Taylor to Dante Rossettl 

7 Beach Cottages, Hastings, 
[? Autumn 1867.] 

My dear Gabriel, — . . . The amount of work done in 
%6 was the largest amount we have ever done. We worked 
at high pressure all through the year. 



WARINGTON TAYLOR, 1867 279 

We obtained the utmost quantity of design from Ned. 

The work in the shop never flagged for want of design. 

We did as much work as the shop could ever do, for 
we could not hope ever to have more design than last 
year. 

The whole year was more or less under my direct 
superintendence. 

Therefore the year '66 is complete as a year to draw 
conclusions from. ... 

Now after all this, why is the profit on stained glass so 
small ? All the windows last year were executed at what 
we considered high rates. Yet our profits were very 
small. 

Of course without the books I cannot give you exact 
figures. . . . 

Of course we should also want capital— a certain sum 
left for the present to work with. This has been always 
my great difficulty. This has been really the hard fight ; 
we have never had a ^loo to call our own. Last year you 
see it was all spent upon the new premises. As to Morris 
having his capital, keep him without it ; he will only spend 
it in books. In about three years' time it will be of use 
to him for publishing-purposes : at the present it would 
go in wine and books !!!... 

For the present I should advise you not to be too 
sanguine. There will be plenty of time to see then as to 
the value of my services. For the present, my impression 
is the glass is still at too low a price ; but the point is, 
will the people pay more ? Would they stand (we will say) 
another ^15 or ^20 on to ;^ioo? That would make a 
difference on i^2000. We do only twenty windows per 
ann. : therefore our price must be high. — Ever yours, 

W. Taylor. 



280 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

165.— Warington Taylor to Dante Rossetti. 

[Hastings. 



Autiwin 1867.] 



My dear Gabriel, — . . . You have now digested the firm's 
affairs — ^just kindly read my comments as follows : — 

A business of ^2000 work a year may give a sufficient 
profit to one person, but is not large enough for a company ; 
and, in a business doing so small an amount of work, the 
proprietor should be clerk, manager, and all, himself. But 
with us two large salaries are taken out of the iJ^SOO profit 
that ought to be : Morris ^150, Taylor ;^i2o; and since my 
unfortunate illness six months of MacShane, £^7- los. 

Our annual expenditure, roughly stated, comes to quite 
^^1500 out of ^2000. 

Wages at i^20 per week . . ;^I040 

Rent, Rates, Taxes ... 70 

Glass . . . . .130 

Lead, coals, petty cash, sundries . 100 
Designs — Webb 

Ned 

Morris 

£ 

I cannot give amount of designs without books. 

I am very queer again ; perspirations at night and no 
sleep are dragging me to pieces by degrees. — Ever yours, 

W. Taylor. 



166. — Dante Rossetti to C. P. Matthews. 

[Mr Matthews (of the Brewing-firm of Ind, Coope, & 
Co.) had commissioned Rossetti, at a large price, to execute 
in oils his design named Aspecta Medusa. Not long after- 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1867 281 

wards he expressed a repugnance to one main constituent 
in the desig-n, the severed head of Medusa. Several letters 
were interchanged on the subject. The final understanding 
between the parties was amicable enough ; but Mr Matthews 
did not carry out that particular commission, and I question 
whether he purchased any specimen of my Brother's work.] 

[i6 Cheyne Walk. 
? 12 November 1867.] 

My dear Mr Matthews, — Your letter has given me 
matter for reflection, which has been the cause of my 
delay in answering. 

It would greatly decrease m}^ pleasure in the picture 
I am engaged on for you if I thought there was an 
unavoidable feature in its treatment to which you could 
never become reconciled. Your consent to have it on the 
large scale, at my wish, rather than on the smaller one 
to which you originally inclined, showed so much con- 
sideration, and your immediate consent to m.y own terms 
was so satisfactory, that I should feel greatly discouraged 
if I saw real reason to fear that anything besides my own 
inadequacy, which I would do my best to overcome, 
threatened to stand in the way of your pleasure in the 
work when completed. Though the picture is not yet 
fairly commenced, nothing has been so much in my mind 
since I received the commission from you in July last. I 
have been working towards it in many preparatory ways, 
in none more than in getting minor work cleared away 
to leave my mind free for it, and the studies from life for 
it are in progress. Before long I reckon on showing you 
.some advance with them. 

Our discussion on the question of the Gorgon's head 
when I last saw you was not perhaps entered on with 
sufficient opportunity for decision at so immature a stage 
of the design ; but I had hoped that your apprehension 
on the point was nearly, if not quite, removed. My own 
conviction remains the same — that is, that the head, treated 
as a pure ideal, presenting no likeness (as it will not) to 



282 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

the severed head of an actual person, being moreover so 
much in shadow (according to my arrangement) that no 
painful ghastliness of colour will be apparent, will not 
really possess when executed the least degree of that 
repugnant reality which might naturally suggest itself at 
first consideration. I feel the utmost confidence in this 
myself, as the kind of French sensational horror which 
the realistic treatment of the severed head would cause 
is exactly the quality I should most desire to avoid. The 
subject does not exist in any completely rendered form 
that I know of; but there are sufficient slight representa- 
tions of it on vases and in wall-decoration of classic times 
to determine its exact treatment as including the head 
separate, not on the shield ; besides that, as you say, the 
latter treatment would in reality be an anachronism. This 
last point I should not so much object to, if I did not 
feel that the beauty of the design would suffer greatly, 
and the action of my group would be entirely destroyed, 
by the substitution of a shield for the detached head. 
The subject is one I have fixed on for years and much 
desired to carry out, and of which the treatment is as 
clear in my mind as if it were already done. No other 
subject for a large work is so tempting to me at this 
moment, and the time which has elapsed since I last 
saw you has enabled me to mature all my ideas respect- 
ing its execution, and take various important steps 
towards it. Thus nothing but the most decided im- 
pression against it in your mind would enable me to 
bear with (?) substituting another subject for this, in the 
picture I am to paint for you ; especially as I feel so 
confident of removing such impression, so far as the 
materials of the subject are concerned. And this at the 
same time I say with the strongest wish that a commission 
so liberally given should be carried out to your entire 
satisfaction, quite as much as to my own. 

I hope, as I say, to be writing to )'ou shortly to show 
you some of the studies, and also some other work 
completed. Meanwhile, I should be very glad of a further 



WALT WHITMAN, 1867 283 

word from you on a matter which so much occupies my 
mind. 



167. — Walt Whitman to William Rossetti. 

[Mr Whitman was quite right in assuming that I had 
no idea of bringing out " an expurgated edition " of his 
poems. I selected such poems only as could not, even in 
the opinion of the most punctilious persons, require any 
expurgation : from the prose preface alone I omitted two 
or three phrases. My volume did not correspond to his 
proposal in every minute detail : if I remember right, it 
was chiefly in print before I received the present letter. — 
" Mr Burroughs's Notes " are that able writer's Notes on 
IVa/t WJiitiuafi as Poet and Person.'] 

Washington. 
22 November 1867. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — I suppose Mr Conway has re- 
ceived, and you have read, the letter I sent over about 
three weeks since, assenting to the substitution of other 
words etc., as proposed by you, in your reprint of my book, 
or selections therefrom. 

I suppose the reprint intends to avoid any expressed 
or implied character of being an expurgated edition, I 
hope it will simply assume the form and name of a selec- 
tion from the various editions of my pieces printed here. 
I suggest, in the interest of that view, whether the adjoin- 
ing might not be a good form of title-page : — 

WALT WHITMAN'S POEMS 
SELECTED FROM THE AMERICAN EDITIONS 

BY 

WM, M. ROSSETTI 

I wish particularly not only that the little figures number- 
ing the stanzas, but also that the larger figures dividing 



284 ROSSETTI PAPP:RS 

the pieces into separate passages or sections, be carefully 
followed and preserved, as in copy. 

When I have my next edition brought out here, I shall 
change the title of the piece " When lilacs last in the door- 
yard bloomed " to President Lincoln's Funeral- Hymn. You 
are at liberty to take the latter name or the old one, at 
your option (that is, if you include the piece). 

It is quite certain that I shall add to my next edition 
(carrying out my plan from the first) a brief cluster of 
pieces born of thoughts on the deep themes of Death and 
Immortality. 

Allow me to send you an article I have written on 
Democracy ; a hasty charcoal-sketch of a piece, but indica- 
tive, to any one interested in Leaves of Grass, as of the 
audience the book supposes, and in whose interest it is 
made. I shall probably send it next mail. 

Allow me also to send you (as the ocean-postage law 
is now so easy) a copy of Mr Burroughs's Notes, and some 
papers. They go same mail with this. 

And now, my dear Sir, you must just make what use 
(or no use at all) of anything I suggest or send as your 
occasions call for. Very likely some of my suggestions 
have been anticipated. 

I remain, believe me, with friendliest feelings arid 
wishes, 

Walt Whitman. 



i68. — A. B. Houghton to William Rossettl 

[The " illustration " here spoken of is the able woodcut- 
design which Mr Houghton made for my blank-verse 
narrative, Mrs Holmes Grey, published in TJie Broadzvay.'] 

2 King Henry's Road. 
3 December 1867. 

Dear Rossetti, — I shuddered when I saw your note — 
positively. I expected a ferocious wigging for the illustra- 



WALT WHITMAN, 1867 285 

tion, and got thanks ! Your notice of my picture in The 
Chronicle was only too kind — the " grotesque-graceful " 
exactly expresses what I was trying for. . . . — Yours 
faithfully, 

A. B. Houghton. 



169. — Walt Whitman to William Rossetti. 

[I think it will be understood from what precedes that 
my original intention had been to make a simple and un- 
expurgated Selection from Whitman's poems : such was my 
object, and such was the ultimate form of the volume. 
But, consequent upon Whitman's letter to Mr Conway (No- 
161), the project was at one moment entertained of includ- 
ing in the selection, with omission of certain phrases or 
passages, various poems highly characteristic of his best 
powers. This project proved, from the present letter, to be 
based on a misunderstanding, and it was at once dropped. 
— " Mr O'Connor's pamphlet " is The Good Grey Poct.l 

Washington. 
3 December 1867. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — I have just received and have 
considered your letter of 17 November. In order that 
there be the frankest understanding with respect to my 
position, I hasten to write you that the authorization in 
my letter of i November to Mr Conway, for you to 
make verbal alterations, substitute words, etc., was meant 
to be construed as an answer to the case presented in Mr 
Conway's letter of 12 October. Mr Conway stated the 
case of a volume of selections in which it had been decided 
that the poems reprinted in London should appear verbatim, 
and asking my authority to change certain words in the 
Preface to first edition of poems etc. 

I will be candid with you and say I had not the 
slightest idea of applying my authorization to a reprint of 



286 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

the full volume of my poems. As such a volume was not 
proposed, and as your courteous and honourable course 
and attitude called and call for no niggardly or hesitating 
response from me, I penned that authorization, and did not 
feel to set limits to it. But abstractly and standing alone, 
and not read in connection with Mr C[onway]'s letter of 
12 October, I see now it is far too loose, and needs distinct 
guarding. 

I cannot and will not consent of my own volition to 
countenance an expurgated edition of my pieces. I have 
steadily refused to do so under seductive offers here in my 
own country, and must not do so in another country. 

I feel it due to myself to write you explicitly thus, my 
dear Mr Rossetti, though it may seem harsh and perhaps 
ungenerous. Yet I rely on you to absolve me sooner or 
later. Could you see Mr Conway's letter of 12 October, 
you would, I think, more fully comprehend the integrity of 
my explanation. 

I have to add that the points made in that letter in 
relation to the proposed reprint, as originally designed, 
exactly correspond with those on the same subject in your 
own late letter ; and that the kind and appreciative tone 
of both letters is in the highest degree gratifying, and is 
most cordially and affectionately responded to by me ; and 
that the fault of sending so loose an authorization has 
surely been, to a large degree, my own. 

And now, my friend, having set myself right on that 
matter, I proceed to say, on the other hand, for you and 
for Mr Hotten, that, if before the arrival of this letter you 
have practically invested in, and accomplished or partially 
accomplished, any plan, even contrary to this letter, I do 
not expect you to abandon it, at loss of outlay etc., but 
shall bond fide consider you blameless if you let it go on and 
be carried out as you may have arranged. It is the question 
of the authorization of an expurgated edition, proceeding 
from me, that deepest engages me. The facts of the 
different ways, one way or another way, in which the 
book may appear in England, out of influences not under 



WALT WHITMAN, 1867 287 

the shelter of my umbrage, are of much less importance to 
me. After making the foregoing explanation, I shall, I 
think, accept kindly whatever happens. For I feel, indeed 
know, that I am in the hands of a friend, and that my 
pieces will receive that truest, brightest of light and per- 
ception coming from love. In that, all other and lesser 
requisites become pale. 

It would be better, in any Introduction, to make no 
allusion to me as authorizing, or not prohibiting, etc. 

The whole affair is somewhat mixed — and I write 
off-hand to catch to-morrow's New York steamer. But I 
guess you will pick out my meaning. Perhaps indeed Mr 
Hotten has preferred to go on after the original plan — 
which, if so, saves all trouble. 

I have to add that I only wish you could know how 
deeply the beautiful personal tone and passages of your 
letter of 17 November have penetrated and touched me. 
It is such things that go to our hearts and reward us, 
and make up for all else, for years. Permit me to offer 
you my friendship. 

I sent you hence, 23 November, a letter through Mr 
Conway ; also a copy of Mr Burroughs's Notes, Mr 
O'Connor's pamphlet, and some papers containing criticisms 
on Leaves of Grass. Also, later, a prose article of mine 
named Democracy, in a Magazine. 

Let me know how the work goes on, what shape it 
takes, etc. Finally, I charge you to construe all I have 
written through my declared and fervid realization of your 
goodness toward me, nobleness of intention, and (I am fain 
to hope) personal, as surely literary and moral, sympathy 
and attachment. — And so, for the present, farewell, 

Walt Whitman, 



288 ROSSETTl PAPERS 



170. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossettl 

[The passage of Italian quoted from my Father runs as 
follows : — " If it happens to me (and perchance it will 
happen) that I must relinquish all thoughts of this world, 
I shall order to be sent on to you the MSS. of the two 
remaining Dissertations of the Beatrice di Dante^ which you 
will keep as a memorial of your sincere friend." — I did not 
receive from Barone Kirkup the letters of my Father which 
he offered me : I must no doubt have replied that I should 
be pleased to get them, but perhaps not with sufficient 
emphasis. — " That horrible and noxious blackguard " is of 
course Napoleon III.] 

Florence, Ponte Vecchio 2. 
15 December 1867. 

My dear Rossetti, — You and Trelawny are my only 
coHgeiiial correspondents. The rest are priest-ridden Tories, 
vain and ignorant. You have a spice of your Father. I 
lately found above twenty of his letters in an old drawer, 
mixed with hundreds of others. I think they contain even 
more condensed unanswerable logic on the subject of Dante 
than even his books, — long letters for my instruction, me a 
poor devil and unlettered drudge at painting potboilers. 
He talks of Trelawny, Leader, L[ord] Vernon, Lyell, East- 
lake, Panizzi, etc. ; of his own failing health and his journey 
to Paris ; and much about his Beatrice. One letter (dated 
5 August 1843, Parigi, chez le Dr Not, an old friend of 
mine), and which letter I had lost for years and lately 
found, says : " Se mi accade (e forse accadra) che io debba 
rinunziare ai pensieri di questo mondo, ordinero che sieno 
a voi trasmessi i manoscritti de' due Ragionamenti residui 
della Beatrice di Dante, che conserverete come memoria 
del vostro sincero amico, G. Rossetti." 

Poor dear friend ! He forgot to ordinare this last wish. 
... If I was younger and my eyes stronger, I would get by 
heart his Misteri and his Beatrice, and collect from Aroux 



BARONE KIRKUP, 1867 289 

all that is not in those works, and so glean something of the 
lost Ragionamenti which were to be more conclusive than 
the first. Even my letters from him are so, and I hope to 
show them to you some day ; and you shall have them if 
you can make any use of them for your Father's fame. . . . 

I don't think I differ from you an iota. I always thought 
that horrible and noxious blackguard what he now is — a 
traitor to his own country, and now to any weaker one, 
Mexico and Italy. He pocketed all Prussia's affronts — 
and he might have been foiled by Italy if her government 
had shown vigour. The arrest of Garibaldi, of his stores 
and ammunition and of so many of his followers, spoiled all, 
and encouraged tJiat blackguard to bully, and strike his 
petty blow with two divisions only. Garibaldi would have 
taken Civita Vecchia and Rome certainly ; and the first 
French invader would have authorized the Galantuomo to 
send his army, backed by the whole nation of enthusiastic 
volunteers, and perhaps a threat from Prussia, as happened 
after Solferino. Rattazzi's was a policy of fear. Garibaldi's 
success was miraculous in spite of all misfortunes, until the 
French reserve came up with their Chassepots. . . . 

The King and his Sons have been brought up amidst 
mummery, humbug, and hocuspocus, and the usual adula- 
tion of Courts. What has the people gained ? Equality 
of religions, and civil marriages ; and they have paid dearly 
for it. Taxation redoubled, and threatened bankruptcy 
(to my misfortune), bad administration, bad generals and 
admirals, and an exchange from German to French 
tyranny. . . . 

Garibaldi has been saved by a miracle ; always the 
first to attack and the last to retreat. I have no doubt 
that three of my spirits defended him, but that is no 
proof He is still to be saved for better times. The 
Brother of Tennyson has been writing to ask for some 
information about my spirits. He is more of a philosopher 
than a poet. He has had some experience himself. . . . — 
Yours with affection, 

Seymour Kirkup. 

T 



290 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



171. — Dante Rossetti to C. P. Matthews. 

[16 Cheyne Walk.] 
3 January 1868. 

Dear Mr Matthews, — The subject of your letter requiring 
some consideration is the cause of delay in my reply. I may 
now say that on the whole I think with you our best course 
will be to abandon the Medusa subject for which you 
originally commissioned me, and to substitute another. 
When you wrote me your objections some weeks ago, 
my own great interest in my design made me sanguine 
as to satisfying you with my work in the end ; but since 
then I have not been without misgivings that, after all, 
the feeling you express might not be removed by the 
completed work ; and perhaps eventually I myself might 
even, on this account, have become the proposer of a 
change of subject. Thus all is well, as 3^ou will agree with 
me that our joint assent was needed to any change in our 
concluded engagement. 

As to the time and trouble already devoted by me to 
the work in preparation and studies, and your proposal 
to compensate me for this, I need only say that, as I shall 
of course continue the Medusa picture sooner or later on 
my own account, either on the life-scale or a smaller one, 
the studies made will still serve me, and will also them- 
selves be saleable. This matter therefore need not be 
pursued further. 

The great question remaining is, what subject can I 
substitute for your commission in place of the Medusa? 
And here I must speak like yourself with perfect frankness. 
I have not any subject in my mind which I specially desire 
to paint at this moment, which would precisely correspond, 
in its amount of material (two figures), with the Medusa, 
and so fall within the same price (1500 guineas). At the 
same time, I cannot afford to forego the commission. It 
remains for me therefore to propose the only alternative 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1868 291 

by which I can avoid being a sufferer in the most painful 
way by the change of plan — that is, in having to paint 
a work which I should not otherwise be doing, instead of 
one which I greatly desire to do. 

Among the subjects I most wish to carry out in my 
lifetime is one of which I already, some time ago, made 
a small water-colour drawing which I always regarded only 
as a preparation for a larger w^ork. The subject is Dante's 
Dream ; an incident taken from the Vita Nuova of the 
poet, the autobiographical record of his early life and love. 
This, however, being a composition of five figures, could 
not be painted for the same price as the Medusa. My 
proposal is to paint it for you for 2000 guineas, on a 
good scale, though not life-size, the extent of the com- 
position precluding this. 

Though this proposal involves an extension of com- 
mission, it would be in fact of no pecuniary advantage to 
me, but the reverse ; except in the one all-important 
particular, that I should thus be both complying with your 
wish for a change of design, and at the same time substitut- 
ing for one subject after my own heart another in which 
I should take equal delight. Otherwise, the figures being 
more than twice the number of those in the first subject, 
I should be taking on myself an amount of labour much 
more than proportionate to the increase of price. 1 already 
explained to you, when we were discussing the Medusa 
subject, that the size of figures in a picture, whether that 
of life or less, made no difference in the labour of the work, 
supposing them to be still on a good scale. 

The small water-colour of this subject which I once 
made I have no longer ; but, in case of your entertaining 
the proposal, I would show you very shortly a sketch of 
the composition, and would put the work in hand (in case 
of our agreeing upon it) at the outset of this New Year 
without further delay. 



292 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



172.— Dante Rossetti to C. P. Matthews. 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
7 Ja7iuary 1868. 

Dear Mr Matthews, — I cannot disguise from you that 
your last letter causes me great disappointment, which I 
feel sure you will not consider unreasonable on considering 
the course of events. After much careful preparation, during 
some months, for a work on which I built the greatest 
hopes, and the nature of which was so fixed that change 
seemed out of the question, I nevertheless felt it necessary 
to admit the force of an unconquerable objection coming 
thus late from you, since, if the work failed to please you 
at last, it could not but leave a painful regret with me. 
However, the substitution which you now suggest of small 
and comparatively casual works to the amount of the 
commission, instead of the one serious work, would destroy 
all the pleasure, and (in the higher sense) all the advantage, 
which I had promised myself from executing your order 
in its original form. In saying this, I speak without reserve, 
as you have rightly done, regarding an agreement which 
your wishes make it necessary we should modify, but in 
which my own interests are also greatly at stake. 

When I proposed the Dante subject in my last letter, 
I thought that probably — considering what you had said as 
to compensation for my trouble till now with the work 
which (though I felt a difficulty in charging for it) has been 
in many ways very considerable, and most of all as regards 
the discouragement of the present change — you would not 
object to an extension of commission. This in fact involved 
no advantage to me, except that of painting a second subject 
I greatly desire to paint in lieu of the first, rather than 
having to seek something as a mere substitute : otherwise, 
as I said, the new plan was less advantageous to me than 
the old one. 

As to the price fixed for the Medusa, I perfectly recollect 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1868 293 

my first saying that if possible I would paint it for 1200 
guineas, though 1500 was the limit which I thought might 
be reached ; but in answer to this you very liberally said 
that in that case you should wish the larger sum to be 
fixed at once between us, that so I might have full scope in 
carrying out the work. I am not sure whether our friend 
Halliday was present at this part of our conversation ; but 
I feel confident, without now asking him, that you would 
find his impression (derived either from his being present, 
or from his talk with you on the subject at Havering that 
evening or shortly afterwards) to be the same as my own. 

It has struck me that you may have been led to think 
it possible, from the months which have elapsed since the 
commission was given, that the execution of an important 
work would in my hands be prolonged indefinitely. To 
this I should reply that many preparations and various 
studies have been made by me for the Medusa since it 
was first ordered ; and that the only reason why I have 
as yet shown you nothing was my great desire that what 
you first saw should leave the best possible impression. 
With the substituted subject, I would now fix a precise 
longest date for the delivery of the work, if that seemed 
desirable to you. 

I have now to make a fresh offer regarding the Dante 
design, which you say in itself would, you believe, thoroughly 
please you. This is, to paint it on such a reduced scale as 
to size (which of course should still be not unimportantly 
small), and, so far as possible with justice to the work, 
reducing the labour throughout, as would enable me to 
execute it for 1500 guineas. The picture, you may rely, 
should still be my best, though smaller than I should have 
wished to make it. This offer may I trust prove satisfactory 
to you, both as to subject, scale, and price ; as it seems 
now to correspond both with the original commission and 
with 3^our requirements since. In making it, I accept all 
the onus of the change of plan, in respect of time already 
spent and of sacrifice in some respects as regards the new 
work ; but this I shall be content to do if I can both satisfy 



294 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

myself with the nature of the work and please you with 
its result. 

One point of difficulty under which I labour, as regards 
a change, I have not yet mentioned. That is, the degree 
of discredit for an artist which attaches to the subject of a 
commission being altered. During the time I have been 
getting the Medusa in hand, my work and the fact of its 
being commissioned have of course become known to 
various frequenters of my studio, and have been reported 
pretty widely ; and the unavoidable consequence that, when 
I resume the work, I shall have to offer it to some one who 
will probably know it was originally ordered in another 
quarter, is not the least inconvenient feature of my position. 
In spite of this and other difficulties, I assented to your 
request that our original subject might be withdrawn, and 
have also used my endeavour to meet your further views. 
This being so, I feel assured, remembering the spirit in 
which the commission was first given, you will think with 
me that my own preferences now in their turn claim 
consideration. 

I regret troubling you again with so long a letter, but 
could not manage to express myself more briefly. I shall 
be very glad to receive a visit from you at any time, and 
remain, dear Mr Matthews, yours very truly, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 



173.— Dante Rossetti to C. P. Matthews. 

[16 Cheyne Walk.] 
<) January 1868. 

Dear Sir, — Pray acquit me at once of all intention to 
"tie you down hand and foot" to any plans whatever. 
There are points of expression in your present letter which 
have given me too much pain for me to wish to comment on 
them at all. I will merely say that, whether or not I could 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 295 

have courage to paint large pictures on speculation, I have 
too much self-respect to have any dealings as an artist, 
except on a footing of mutual confidence. This being the 
case, I must now decline at once to paint you any picture 
at all. — I am, dear sir, yours faithfully, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 



174. — Dante Rossetti to C. P. Matthews. 

[With this letter the Matthews correspondence came, I 
think, to a close ; but Mr Matthews and Rossetti met at 
least once afterwards. — Mr Michael F. Halliday, the semi- 
professional painter, had been the first introducer of this 
gentleman to my Brother's studio, and, in the points where 
the two men had been at variance, he heartily upheld my 
Brother's view.] 

[16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
January 1868.] 

I have seen Halliday, and need only say, after all he tells 
me, that I shall be as happy as ever to see you again at any 
time, or to hear from you. As regards pictures (should you 
wish to renew that subject), I would carry out either of the 
proposals made by me, or else the original one. Should I see 
you, you will agree with me heartily, I know, that we need 
not talk of past misconceptions. 



175. — William Rossetti — Diary. 

1868. Friday, 10 January. — Gabriel ... is now writing 
to the Secretary etc. of the Leeds Exhibition, objecting to 
the request which Miss Heaton tells him has been made for 
a picture by him in her possession to be contributed. He 
has every reason to remonstrate against this, as, in conse- 



296 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

quence of some previous correspondence, he was distinctly- 
informed that no pictures of his would be solicited nor even 
accepted. . . . 

TJiursda}\ \6 January. — . . . The Secretary of the Leeds 
Exhibition states to Gabriel that his objection to the hanging 
there of any of his pictures will be attended to. G[abriel] 
says that Patmore told him once (as if he had reason to 
know it for certain) that the mystery about Geraldine in 
Coleridge's Christabel is that she is in reality a man ; and 
Coleridge found this incident so embarrassing to the con- 
tinuation of his poem that he abandoned it. G[abriel] has 
written a sonnet for his Venus picture. . . . 

Friday, ly January. — Dined at Stephens's with Hunt. 
The latter has been solicited lately by Millais to stand for 
A.R.A. He consulted Brown about the matter the other 
day, and seems now to have made up his mind not to stand 
on this or any future occasion. . , . 

Thursday, 23 January. — Gabriel has made one or two 
studies for a projected picture of La Pia, for which Mrs 
Morris has engaged to sit. . . . 

Smiday, 26 January. — Dilberoglue called. . . , He says that 
he once attended a private reading by Emerson of his lecture 
on Plato, and received a chilling impression — E[merson] 
being altogether impersonal — as if he had none but an 
intellectual relation to his subject, and scarcely so much as 
that to his hearers.* . . . 

Tuesday, 28 January. — My Mrs Holmes Grey out in TJie 
Broadtuay. . . . 

Thursday, 30 January. — Resumed some of the work on 
the selection of Artists' Opinions upon Art. 

Friday, 31 January. — Matthews called on Gabriel to-day, 
and the breach between them is healed. M[atthews] did 
not however say anything definite about a commission : from 
the statement of Halliday, who called in the evening, it 
appears that M[atthews] has really no convenient space for 

* I myself heard Emerson lecture in or about 1848, and received 
something of the same impression, yet not strongly. The lectures were, 
I think, those on Shakespear and on Napoleon, 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 297 

a decidedly large picture, and would like instead various 
pictures of about the size of the Lilith. H[alliday] says that 
Millais's two eldest boys, very nice boys but not showing 
any appreciable artistic tendency, are just about to pass 
through some tutoring as a preliminary to going to Harrow : 
the eldest is about eleven. Millais was showing the other 
day the various medals he has received — either nine or 
eleven in number. . , . 

Monday, 3 February. — Gabriel sent us round his life-sized 
oil-portrait of Mamma.* Swinburne having written me a 
superfluously enthusiastic letter about my Mrs H\olmes\ Grey, 
urging me to continue writing poetry, I asked G[abriel] what 
line of poetry he would think me best adapted for ; and his 
advice is to go on on the same tack as in that performance. 

Tuesday, 4 February. — Hotten tells me that the Whit- 
man Selection is to be out to-morrow. Dined at Scott's 
with Howell, Conway, etc. H[owell] told us a strange story 
of Ruskin's having just lately given a cheque to a Mr Calvert 
for ;^36oo for minerals which he had never seen, and which 
finally turned out to be non-existent. The cheque was dated 
forward for 8 February ; and Howell, having met Calvert at 
Ellis the bookseller's, unravelled the plot, and stopped pay- 
ment. Whether further complications will ensue remains 
to be seen. Alfred Hunt talked to me about the immense 
difference between pure landscape, such as he aims after, and 
in which everything has to be done by relations of distance 
and light etc., and such landscape as that of Mason or Hook, 
where the prominence given to figures fills-up space, and 
thus saves some of the greatest difficulties. Jones, who 
came in late, has been of late, and still is, much troubled by 
sleeplessness, and has intermitted work altogether. Conway 
says that the letter lately addressed to me by Whitman is 
considerably the most interesting of his letters he has seen 
anywhere. . . . 

Friday, 7 February. — . . . Christina consulted Dr Jenner 
to-day. He examined her with the stethoscope, and pro- 
nounces that she has congestion of one lung, but certainly not 
* Now in my possession. 



298 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

consumption ; that her life may be prolonged indefinitely, 
but she must not relax in the precautions she has been 
taking of late years. . . . Aunt Charlotte, up yesterday from 
Muntham, has brought some photographs from designs of 
children by a young man in a decline — a weaver, I think, 
and wholly untrained in art* They are the most surprising 
specimens from such a hand I recollect ever to have seen, 
being most excellent in style and realized expression. . . . 

Tuesday, 1 1 February. — Called on Hunt to see his picture 
of Isabella and the Pot of Basil; a work somewhat deficient on 
the side of delicacy of beauty, but eminently fine and able. 
He is doing, for his little boy, portraits of himself and Mrs 
Waugh (and I think others are to come) — very forcible (not 
as yet softened down), and painted with brushes of great 
length, so that he stands a good way off the canvas, and finds 
he can thus give features better as a general whole. We got 
Scott to come out and dine with us at St James's Restaurant. 
Hunt (with Tebbs etc.) went lately to a spiritual seance at 
Mrs Guppy's. The principal thing was the production 
(apparently on the spot and in a very short time, but in 
total darkness) of two drawings, of a griffin, bird, and angel 
— and of a crane, sea, etc. H[unt] says these were certainly 
good performances up to a certain point — would have done 
credit to a very clever and competent amateur ; and the short 
time of their production (if really thus produced) beyond 
what he can account for. 

Wednesday, 12 February. — Went to see at Christie's 
Windus's f pictures, to be sold in a day or two ; Millais's 
Isabella, Gabriel's Lucrezia Borgia, etc. . . . 

Thursday, 13 February. — Some friends in the evening at 
Euston Square : Browning one of them, looking exceedingly 
well, and behaving most cordially and affably. He says he 
gets up daily at 6 (or 5, I am not sure which), and sits 
without a fire till 8 or so. His new edition, now just com- 
ing out, is on a strictly chronological scheme : he says that 

* Warwick Brookes — but this account of him is not correct : see the 
entry for 25 February. 

t Windus of Tottenham. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 299 

he finds the heavier works, such as dramas, read much the 
most agreeably thus arranged. Pmilhie is included in the 
edition, in consequence of his having received a letter from 
somebody * who professes a great enthusiasm for the un- 
acknowledged works of distinguished authors, and who con- 
templated publishing some considerable part of P\auline\ 
in some form — so B[rowning] found the best thing to do 
would be to take the affair into his own hands, and re- 
publish the whole poem with proper press-corrections — not 
any re-writing, which he objects to. His great new poem 
ought to be out towards July, through Smith and Elder : 
he has left Chapman and Hall, finding them unmanageably 
careless. He describes the general quality of the poem as 
the same transaction seen from a number of differing points 
of view, or glimpses in a mirror. I find he has seen what 
I wrote about him in the Swinburne pamphlet, as he made 
a most good-humoured reference to the passage about his 
eyes.f He liked Stillman's Cretan wine ; and this led to 
my talking about S[tillman] to Miss Browning, whom I 
find to be a warm friend of his : she especially charged me 
to send S[tillman] her love (and to his Wife also) J when 
next I write. Browning expresses (as I had before been 
told) a very high opinion of Morris's Jason. . . . 

Sunday, i6 February. — Sent Pollen some particulars for 
his Art-Catalogue § — also a note or two to Notes arid 
Queries ; and began for the latter an article (which will be 
of some length if carried as far as I incline) on emenda- 
tions etc. to Shelley. . , . 

Wednesd !]', 19 February. — Gabriel says that the pictures 
in Windus's sale sold badly for the most part. His own 
Lucrezia Borgia was carried on to £^0 (by pre-arrangement 

* I fancy this was Mr R. Heme Shepherd. 

t There was a marked peculiarity in Browning's eyes — one of them 
long-sighted, the other short-sighted. To this, as illustrating the quahty 
of his mind, I had made some reference in my pamphlet. 

X Thejirsf Mrs Stillman, an American, whose life closed in Crete not 
long afterwards. 

§ Mr John Hungerford Pollen was then compiling, for the Department 
of Science and Art, an Universal Catalogue of BooI;s on Art, 



300 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

with Howell); Fuseli's Lycidas, £i6. i6s., and Nightmare, 
about ;^i ; two excellent early Inchbolds £12 and i^io or 
thereabouts. Millais's Isabella fetched £/\po, and Wander- 
ing Thojights £100. Howell says that Calvert is taking 
legal proceedings against Ruskin for conspiracy, but H[owell] 
himself is not made a party in the cause. R[uskin] pro- 
poses to defend himself in person. Cruikshank is as usual 
in hot water, or hotter than ever. He has (as he informs 
Howell) advanced to his Havelock Rifle-Corps iJ"700 ; . . . 
and now, with all the rows in the Corps, and objections 
raised to certain items of these expenses, he fears he will 
never be reimbursed. Then he received from Teetotallers 
;^36oo to keep him going while painting The WorsJiip of 
Bacchus, in expectation of large returns from that work. 
The thing was a failure. The Teetotallers got him to 
pledge with Attenborough for ^^500 his other works ex- 
hibited along with the Bacchus, and the interest has been 
duly paid up to January next. Meanwhile the Trustees of 
Mrs Cruikshank's prospective income had been advancing 
money to C[ruikshank] on the faith of his having these 
works on his own hands. The Teetotallers now want to 
send the Bacchus, and the stock of engravings from it, 
over to America, to be there touted and lectured about : 
but Cruikshank objects to this on account of the affair 
with his Wife's Trustees ; and Howell, who has obtained 
possession of the pawn - duplicates, refuses to sanction 
it. . . . 

Tuesday, 25 February. — Gabriel has sold his old cartoon- 
set from The Parable of the Vineyard to a Manchester 
man* for ;fioo. He has purchased through Shields a set 
of the photographed sketches by Warwick Brookes. He is 
not a weaver (see 7th February) but a pattern-designer, 
long accustomed to solace his leisure by sketching in this 
way, but never able to lay aside the routine of his business. 
His age is near fifty, and he has six children : has now 
been disabled by illness for a long while, and has little or 
no dependence except from the sale of these photographs. 

* Mr Johnson, 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 301 

A set of 31 costs £4. They are not all so good as those 
which I saw in the first instance. . . . 

Friday, 28 February. — In the evening of yesterday a 
man was found on the roof of 16 Cheyne Walk, On being 
spoken to, he made off, but was found in the cellars of the 
late Don Saltero's Tavern, and given in charge. On the 
pleading of his Wife however Gabriel abstained from 
taking any further steps against him, and he was discharged. 
It is now found that he had been plundering the lead off 
the roof: a policeman estimates that he must have carried 
away some £\o worth. He is a workman in the employ 
of Clark, who is the builder at Don Saltero's. G[abriel] 
intends to speak to the landlord's agent, Mr Ambler, about 
it ; but will probably go no further. . . . 

Wednesday, 4 March. — A large party at Jones's new 
house, the Grange, North End, Fulham, which I see for 
the first time. Swinburne says that his writing in TJie 
Fortnightly Review has come to a stand for the present. 
Payment for his Halt before Rome, Baudelaire, and another 
poem, being outstanding, the Fortnightly people sent him 
£\2 for the latter two, not as yet settling at all for the 
first. He considers this £\2 altogether below the mark; 
wrote about the matter more than a month ago, and has 
as yet received no reply. Hunt looked in at the party, 
looking very worn and ill, I am sorry to say : it seems his 
Doctor now pronounces the illness to be not asthma (as 
at first said) but a recurrence of his agueish malady. . . . 

Sunday, 8 March. — Finished my notes on Shelley for 
N\otes\ and Q[ueries]. . . . 

Monday, 9 March. — Dined with the Waughs and Hunt. 
H[unt] is looking decidedly less bad than the other day : 
he is taking tonics seven times a day, and (under the 
Doctor's advice) eating meat separate from any bread or 
vegetables. He would not wish his boy (who had gone to 
bed before my arrival) to be an artist — rather perhaps a 
traveller with a purpose. . . , 

Friday, 13 Alarch. — Gabriel is painting an entirely new 
figure of Lucrezia Borgia into his old water-colour of that 



302 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

subject sold recently at Christie's. Morris and his Wife 
came to Chelsea, to remain there some few days — Mrs 
M[orris] having consented to sit to G[abriel] for a figure 
of La Pia which he means to paint. Howell says that 
Calvert appears now to have dropped his action against 
Ruskin for conspiracy ; and R[uskin] is prosecuting him 
for attempting to obtain money under false pretences. The 
object is to coerce C[alvert] into giving up the cheque, 
which, though cancelled, still remains in his hands : if 
this is attained, the prosecution would be dropped. . . . 

Sunday, 15 ]\Iarch. — Browning called. He greatly 
deprecates the publication by Tennyson of the trifling 
affairs which are now appearing in Good Words and Once 
a Week etc. : he says that T[ennyson]'s books are declining 
in sale within this year or two (perhaps the influence of 
Swinburne). Browning's forthcoming poem exceeds 20,000 
lines : it may probably be out in July, but he would defer 
it if he finds that more conducive to the satisfactory com- 
pletion of the work. He began it in October '64. Was 
staying at Bayonne, and walked out to a mountain-gorge 
traditionally said to have been cut or kicked out by Roland, 
and there laid out the full plan of his twelve cantos, 
accurately carried out in the execution. He says he 
writes day by day on a regular systematic plan — some 
three hours in the early part of the day : he seldom or 
never, unless in quite brief poems, feels the inspiring 
impulse and sets the thing down into words at the same 
time — often stores-up a subject long before he writes it. 
He has written his forthcoming work all consecutively — 
not some of the later parts before the earlier. His Son 
is entered at Balliol College, Oxford He talked a good 
deal about his owl, which is most intelligent. It will kiss 
him gently all over the face with its beak, tweak his 
hair, etc., and, if one says "Poor old fello^v ! " or so in 
a commiserating voice, it puts on a sympathetic appearance 
of depression. 

Tuesday, 17 March. — Leyland brought round to Chelsea 
a Mr Hamilton, partner of Graham, M.P. for Glasgow : 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 303 

the latter, it seems, is an intense admirer of the stronger 
or more ideal forms of Praeraphaelitism, as represented 
by Hunt, Gabriel, Jones, etc. Hamilton bought for iJ^300 
a water-colour copy, on a goodish scale of size, of the 
Venus picture. I find that Morris takes much more interest 
in politics than I had any notion of, and that his views 
are quite in harmony with the democratic sympathies of 
Jones, Swinburne, myself, etc, 

Wednesday, 1 8 March. — Lyster tells me that last night at 
the Anthropological Society a discussion arose as to the 
races now in America, and the view was maintained that 
they had no distinctive originating powers, as e.g. in poetry. 
On this Swinburne spoke to the contrary, citing Poe 
(and I should presume Whitman, though Lyster doesn't 
say so). . . . 

Saturday, 28 March. — . . . Gabriel says that Howell 
has told him the details of Ruskin's present love-affair.* 
The lady is named Rosey — G[abriel] forgets the surname. 
She is a very handsome girl of nineteen, of considerable 
fortune ; and her affection was roused towards Ruskin by 
her learning at full the peculiar circumstances of his first 
marriage. She is in love with him, and he with her : 
but her parents interpose objections, and she is at present 
precluded from corresponding with R[uskin]. . . . 

Sunday, 5 April. — Mrs Polydoref called. She does not 
believe that there is real extreme misery prevailing in any 
part of the Southern States. Her Brothers were offered 
by the Confederate States the option of serving (in one 
of the auxiliary departments of the army, as it turned 
out) or of being deported. They chose the former. The 
same option was offered to all non-nationalized residents 
generally. She has gone through any number of singular 

* This is a matter which I should regard as not publishable, were 
it not that Mr ColHngwood, in his Life and Work of JoJm Rnskm, has 
referred to it explicitly, though briefly. 

t The Wife of my Uncle Henry Francis Polydore. She had for 
some years lived apart from her Husband, and had settled in the 
United States, but was now temporarily in London. 



304 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

adventures. At one time was near being exchanged to 
an Indian for a horse, as his squaw ; and she actually some 
years ago, on hearing of her Father's illness or distress, 
came from Salt Lake to Liverpool, having in her pocket 
at starting only three dollars, and not spending any of it 
on the way. 

Monday, 6 April. — Discussed with Gabriel the spiritual 
seance of Wednesday last.* He agrees with me that there 
was nothing in it which could reasonably be called con- 
vincing — unless possibly the affair of the mysterious light 
seen by Mrs Morris as well as others. 

Tuesday, 7 April. — Mr Graham, M.P., who has lately 
taken to picture-buying, called on Gabriel. He felt inclined 
to have the Dream of Beatrice' s Death done in oil : G[abriel] 
proposed iJ"2000 for it, which Mr G[raham] said was beyond 
what he contemplated. However, he wished to pay Gabriel 
at once ;^5oo on account for any picture which G[abriel] 
might execute for him. This Gabriel declined, failing some 
distinct engagement on his own part ; but in the course 
of the evening he wrote to Mr G[raham] expressing himself 
willing to do the Beatrice subject for ^1500. He is 
particularly taken by Mr G[raham]'s demeanour and 
proposals. . . . 

Monday, 13 April . . . Showed Gabriel the photographs 
sent me by Scudder after designs (Piper of Hamelin, etc.) 
by La Farge : he was much pleased with them, and took 
them off to show to Brown. , . . 

Thursday, 16 April. — Hunt's exhibition of his Isabella 
opened. Robertson f is acting as a sort of custodian, 
and tells me that the picture has been very generally 
and heartily admired. About 150 people came. Furnivall 
invited me to do something about early Italian " Courtesy- 
Books " and I consented. . . . 

Wednesday, 22 April. — Hunt has as good as finished 

* This had taken place at Mr Tebbs's house — Mrs Guppy being 
the medium. 

+ Mr John Forbes Robertson. The distinguished actor is 
his Son. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 305 

his portraits of Mrs and Miss Edith Waugh, and is engaged 
on one of his late Wife : he is also doing some retouching 
on the picture of London Bridge on the Wedding-night 
of the Prince of Wales. He says Woolner has lately been 
picking-up cheap a number of pictures which he calls 
Turners, Cromes, Gainsboroughs, etc., but as to many of 
which H[unt] has the strongest doubts; these he lately 
expressed to W[oolner], and some degree of irritation on 
the part of the latter has ensued. H[unt] expects to leave 
for the East towards the beginning of May, He would 
go first to Florence, to give instructions about a monument 
to his Wife ; then probably to Venice, where it seems just 
possible I might be in the way of meeting him ; then 
back to Florence on the same errand, before finally starting 
on the Eastern journey. 

Thursday^ 23 April. — Called at Swinburne's to talk over 
with him a project started by Hotten, that S[winburne] and 
I should do a pamphlet on the R[oyal] A[cademy], as the 
beginning of a series somewhat like that by Ruskin. S[win- 
burne] was not at home, but I left him a note on the subject, 
expressing my readiness to act. . . . 

Saturday, 25 April. — Swinburne called in Euston Square. 
His notion of the proposed R.A. pamphlet is that I should 
do whatever review I please of the whole Exhibition, and 
that he should add a second section saying whatever he 
chooses to say — which would most probably relate to some 
of the same pictures I had already discussed. This I think 
about the most satisfactory way of settling it as far as I am 
concerned, though in itself rather a dislocated scheme. . . . 
He is preparing a Selection from Coleridge, and consulted 
me as to the pieces to be admitted. His standstill with 
The Fortnightly Review continues : he can't get paid for 
the Halt before Rome, nor can he get back his Notes on Old 
Masters' Drawings in Florence. 

Sunday, 26 April. — Gabriel called. . . . G[abriel]'s eyes 
again cause him some uneasiness : he says they feel harder 
and rounder-balled than of old. 

Monday, 27 April. — Swinburne and I discussed the 

U 



306 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

matter with Hotten. The pamphlet altogether would be 
about the same thickness as Ruskin's, but would contain 
more matter. . . . He showed me a letter from Whitman, 
approving of the Selection (he speaks only of its sightliness), 
but objecting decisively to the portrait. Swinburne tells me 
that Sandys has just learned that his picture of Medea (the 
best thing he has done) is rejected at the R.A., which upsets 
him not a little. Perhaps some personal considerations have 
intervened : as a matter of art, the rejection is shameful. 
Hotten says the Whitman Selection has sold tolerably well, but 
that publishing in general is at a very low ebb for the present. 
Tuesday, 28 April. — Sandys called, wishing to get as 
much publicity as possible given to the affair of his picture 
and the R.A. Gabriel is writing to Payne * and Stephens : 
I wrote to Hamerton, and promised to say something in 
my pamphlet, though I would rather keep it free from 
any such controversies. Sandys says that Millais is very 
angry about the way his own pictures have been hung ; 
and the hanging generally excites loud murmurs. Calderon 
and S[idney] Cooper are charged with the active misdoing — 
Maclise having objected continually, but not so as to put a 
stop to what he considered amiss. — I called at Browning's 
to deliver to Miss Browning a letter from Stillman, and to 
give Browning the photograph from La Farge's design of 
T]ie Pied Piper of Hainelin. B[rowning] was not in. Miss 
B[rowning] showed me various items of interest in the 
way of pictures etc., also the owl. She detests Woolner's 
Medallion of B[rowning],f objecting especially to a degree 
of projection given to the under-lip. B[rowning]'s first 
intimacy with the Storys J arose through his giving him- 
self up wholly to attending to their then only Son in his 
last illness. The pictures include a portrait, by Wright 

■* The Rev. J. Burnell Payne, who was at that time an Art-critic of 
some note. 

t This medallion had been done many years previously, perhaps 
towards 1856. I myself consider it a fair likeness, though not an excellent 
one. 

\ Mr W. W, Story the American Sculptor, and his Wife. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 SOl 

of Derby, of B[rowning]'s Grandmother, v/ho must have 
been a strikingly handsome woman ; a portrait by Hogarth 
of Thornhill — a poorish picture, and I should think its 
genuineness not beyond question ; a Rembrandt which i 
am satisfied is not a Rembrandt. None of these, I take 
it, is B[rowning]'s own acquisition. Among those of his 
own purchasing is an old Italian picture — God the Father 
ivith Angels — on panel in three compartments. He had 
the luck to get these three compartments one here and 
one there : they undoubtedly form one picture. 

Wednesday, 29 Ap^il. — Payne (of Moxon and Co.) writes, 
in consequence of my Shelley articles in N\otes'\ and 
Q[?/en'es], to invite me to undertake a re-editing of Shelley, 
accompanied by a biographic notice, for which he thinks 
he would be able to get placed in my hands the chief 
materials hitherto unpublished.* Of all literary work, 
this is the very one I would have chosen for myself: 
indeed, from something Swinburne said to me two or 
three years ago, I had a dim eye to its feasibility in 
writing those articles on Shelley. Though I would rather 
(in consequence of the Poems and Ballads affair) not 
connect myself with Payne in any business or other way, 
I wrote closing with his proposal — leaving over the question 
of pay till the actual amount of work to be done shall be 
more clearly ascertained. Called on Sandys, to see his 
Medea and other works in hand. — Furnivall sent me the 
old poem of Bonvicino, the chief material for the " Courtesy- 
Book " work I consented to do. . . . 

Friday^ i May. — Sandys called at Somerset House. He 
says that several critics have called to see his picture — 
Tom Taylor, Payne, etc. ; among them the critic of The 
Morning Post, who asked to be furnished with some 
details that he could introduce into his review. Sandys, 
not liking to do this himself, asked my aid ; and I wrote 
off something which may perhaps appear as it stands, or 
be used as material. Leyland has bought Sandys's picture 
of The Valkyrie for ;^200. . . . 

* This did 7wt ensue. 



308 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Saturday, 9 May. — Called at Street's ; * and saw the 
cassone with a picture ascribed to Dello Delli, which he 
bought lately at Dazeglio's sale. It is especially interest- 
ing by reason of its introducing Giotto's front to the 
Cathedral of Florence. . . . 

Tuesday, 12 May. — Sala, Sandys, and others, dined at 
Chelsea. A large tent has been set up in the garden, 
and is pleasant even now, and will be very enjoyable in 
thoroughly warm weather : we spent the greater part of 
the evening in it. . . . 

Wednesday, 13 May. — Finished, and sent for Furnivall 
to read, the translation of Bonvicino's Fifty Courtesies for the 
Table. . . . 

Monday, 1 8 May. — . . . Gabriel called. Leyland has now 
commissioned the Medusa picture,f the commission for 
which, previously given by Matthews, miscarried last 
winter. I told G[abriel] that Swinburne had yesterday 
expressed himself desirous of saying in his Notes something 
about G[abriel], could he ascertain that G[abriel] would like 
it. G[abriel] asked me to reply (which I did) that he would 
like it, if "due prominence" can be given to the point. . . . 

Monday, 25 May. — Hotten called with the MS. conclusion 
of Swinburne's R.A. Notes, relating chiefly to Gabriel. 
G[abriel], who called in the evening, feels some doubts 
whether it would not after all have been better to leave 
all this undone, and I incline to the same opinion ; but the 
thing is done now. . . . 

Friday, 29 May. — Gabriel has now got very near the 
completion of his Venus Verticordia: he is also engaged 
in painting on two or three heads of Mrs Morris. 

Saturday, 6 fune. — Started for Paris en route to Verona, 
and perhaps Venice. . . . 

Wednesday, 10 June. — . . . Left Bale at 2.20 P.M., and 
reached Constance before 8. . . . 

Thursday, 1 1 June. — . . . This is the Feast of Corpus 

* George Edmund Street, the Architect who built the Law-courts etc. 
t This commission failed somehow, and the picture was never 
painted. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 309 

Domini. About four-fifths of the population are Catholic, 
and a procession took place in the morning, with an out- 
door mass directly opposite my bedroom window. I 
never saw any such demonstration done with more serious- 
ness, simplicity, and propriety : all ages and ranks took 
part in it, repeating litanies, singing hymns, etc. — the 
military band also performing. The streets were strewn 
with hay, and to some extent with flowers, and large 
boughs of elm and other trees ranged all along the houses. 
The service was conducted throughout in German, and 
the Gospel intoned with unsurpassable emphasis and 
clearness. Various nuns but no monks visible. Almost 
all the shops shut, especially before mid-day. . . , 

Saturday, i}, June. — Reached Lecco at about 5^ A.M. . , , 
Took a carriage and boat, looking about, and making an 
industrial day of it. First went to a silk-mill. The lady 
of the house, a young and attractive woman, took me all 
over, and gave me all possible explanations with the 
greatest courtesy. Most of the work is done by women 
and girls, but the final stages by men. Saw the selecting 
of the better from the inferior cocoons, cleaning them 
(the lady's brother-in-law has introduced in this house a 
machine of his own invention, saving much labour in this 
stage), firing the cocoons, etc. It seems the cocoons have 
all to go to the oven, to kill the unfortunate chrysalis : but 
for this he would come out in his moth-shape, and spoil 
all : and the firing is often imperfectly done, and lets the 
moth come out still in a damaged state. I saw one of 
these ill-starred insects. Went next to a cotton-factory, 
and looked all about, but with much less of verbal explana- 
tion. . . , Then went to a manufactory of small arms — or 
rather, as far as I saw, of the ironwork only of the muskets. 
A most sensible and attentive workman showed me all 
about, giving all sorts of details and demonstrations, and 
absolutely refused the two francs I tendered him at parting. 
He fought at Custozza in %6, rescued a banner, and got 
a medal for the feat ; was wounded in the thigh, and taken 
prisoner, and remained in the hands of the Austrians about 



310 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

two months — thigh now cured. Another of the men in 
the factory, seemingly a superintendent, was his Lieutenant. 
My guide, Hke many other persons here, was wearing 
sandals. From the boat landed and looked over a limekiln. 
They blast the limestone rocks of which there is an endless 
supply on the shores of the lake, burn them, and send them 
down to Milan by barge in about twenty-four hours. The 
fierce furnace, huge stacks of wood (kept over from year 
to year to dry thoroughly), and interior of the kiln-buildings 
generally, would make a good picture. The boatman 
pointed me out a convent of nuns on one mountain, and, a 
considerable way off on another mountain, a convent of 
monks : both now empty, the orders being suppressed. He 
asserts positively that the monks were continually crossing 
over in boats to consort with the nuns ; and evidently 
regards both, and their kind generally, as a bad lot. . . . 
Hosts of volunteers joined Garibaldi from here, both 
last year for Rome and on previous occasions : the boatman 
and the Custozza soldier both seem to regard Garibaldi 
with affection, but as if his career were now substantially 
closed. ... At supper got into conversation with the waiter 
(not the one I remember here in '65). With him Victor 
Emmanuel is a '' traditore ipocrita" * His popularity is 
entirely gone since the Roman affair of last year. He really 
does not want, even for his own personal interests, to have 
Rome ; but would rather keep up the Pope, as the general 
ally of despots. Italy, i.e., the great bulk of the people, 
is republican. The only reason they did not rise last year 
is their want of material resources. If the present Pope 
dies, another will succeed as usual, but in twenty years 
the game will be up. Italy, France, and Germany, ought 
to form one common Republic : but not with a President. 
It should be Triumvirs, or such a presidential system as 
there is in Switzerland, where twelve Governors of Cantons 
elect from among themselves one annual President. Prince 
Humbert is much the same as his Father — "Talis patm 
talis fil/w," 

* Hypocrite-traitor. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTl— DIARY, 1868 311 

Sunday, 14 June. — Left Lecco for Mantua. ... It was 
a great satisfaction to pass Peschiera without any of the 
bother of passports, or any Austrian faces or uniforms to 
enforce their production. Reached Mantua towards \\. , . . 
Got a Vetturino, who was evidently not very bright as to 
the localities : he took me to the Palazzo di Corte instead 
of Palazzo della Ragione, and had no idea of Mantegna's 
house or who Mantegna was ; and, to my surprise, the 
woman at G[iulio] Romano's house (an elegant exterior) 
was no better informed. However, I reached the locality 
with Murray's help, and saw the house : it is of very 
considerable size, hard-by a fine Lombard brick church now 
used as barracks. . . . The Palazzo : . . . This vast and in 
many respects splendid Palace is uninhabited, being only 
used when the sovereign or his representative happens to 
visit Mantua : Victor Emmanuel has not yet been. The 
Duomo is a good Renaissance interior (G[iulio] Romano). 
A priest was catechizing a set of little boys, and discoursing 
on the Corpus Domini : he did it with a very paternal and 
at the same time magisterial air. The total inattention of 
the little fellows (uncombined however with any direct 
misconduct) during his perambulatory lecture on the 
spiritual demands and advantages of the Corpus Domini 
was amusing. The youngest would probably be no more 
than 6 — the eldest 12 or 13. In leaving Lecco I received 
part of my change in paper-money (the first time, I think, 
this ever occurred to me) — 2 francs : and going on I find 
paper more plentiful than coin — even half-francs being in 
paper. Went to the Aquila d'Oro in Mantua. . . . After 
dinner to an open-air Theatre. . . . The piece at the theatre 
was of the intensely virtuous kind characteristic of Italy — 
La Bella Giulietta di Mantova, etc., with a libidinous baron 
finally converted by a santo sacerdote (I think the priests 
are always models of primitive zeal in the theatre, though 
popular feeling is so much the other way), and two peasants 
of the most heroic family-virtues. Then a farce fairly well 
acted, about Le Piccole Miserie. . . . 

Monday, 15 June. — . . . The man in the Church [of San 



312 ilOSSETTI PAPERS 

Sebastiano] accompanied me round to the Museo Antiquario. 
He says things are even worse here than in the time 
of the Austrians, and avows that, if an improvement does 
not take place, he would rather have the Austrians back. — 
The dialect here seems more allied to the Lombard than 
Venetian. The French u is sounded ; and a man who 
emits twenty words not including mica, mico, migo, or 
miga, is a phenomenon. . . . Walked off to spend the twi- 
light quietly in the green before the Anfiteatro Virgiliano, 
when an old lady asked me for an alms. She then said she 
had seen me in Sant' Andrea ; and, on my remarking that 
I had been in the Crypt, whence the Austrians about 1848 
took or destroyed the relic of the blood of Christ, she said 
with much apparent earnestness that the nation had never 
prospered since ; she seemed to have a sincere impression 
that the two things are connected. I got into a conversa- 
tion of some three-quarters of an hour with this old lady, 
who says she is eighty, and is still not without some good 
looks. Her Father, a Frenchman of good family, fled to 
Italy in consequence of a brawl, and, finally getting into 
political troubles there, took poison. She married at four- 
teen, and at sixteen was abandoned by her husband, whose 
fate she has never since known. She allows that her life 
was not entirely correct after this : she had some children 
— of whom at least one, a daughter, is still living, but not 
allowed by her husband to do anything for the Mother, 
who (her marriage being contrary to the liking of her own 
relatives) has long lost sight of them utterly. Being a 
patriotic Italian, she got into prison — the same here in 
Mantua wherein Orsini was confined : she now has no 
dependence whatever, and looks with alarm at the prospect 
from day to day. Many other details did the poor old lady 
pour forth — and I quite believe substantially correct. — 
Mantegna's house, I am told, is to be converted into an 
agricultural school, and will be much altered (it has at 
present still an appearance of considerable age) if not alto- 
gether rebuilt. The inscription mentioned in Murray is 
still legible on it — an upright slab at one corner reaching 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DiAHY, 1868 313 

to the ground. — About the ditches or moats of Mantua there 
is a very splendid dragon-fly which I don't remember ever 
seeing before — a rich velvety crimson. . . . Mantua is said 
to be now no longer the unhealthy place it used to be of 
old with such a profusion of marsh-ground. The country 
is flat and somewhat cut up with water-courses, but not (in 
the present weather, as far as I see) exactly marshy : the 
" pine-tree forest " of Browning's Sordello nowhere visible. I 
notice a Contrada and Caffe Sordello. 

Tuesday, i6 June. — Came on to Venice and reached at 
5 1, after two hours' stay at Verona, and looking at the 
Arena etc. On arriving at the Hotel Danieli, Venice, I 
thought of counting-over the money kept in my hat-box, 
and lo it is gone. Some one must have robbed me — prob- 
ably on the railway. The money was in the collar-compart- 
ment of the hat-box — 690 francs, £6,. 5s. 5d. English, and 
a little Swiss etc. . . . This is the first day (save in the 
Diligence) that I have let the hat-case out of my own 
hands : the two hours' stay at Verona, with consequent 
nuisance of re-consigning the hat-box there, persuaded me 
to adopt this course. On discovering the loss, I at once 
asked for the hotel-proprietor, and explained it to him — 
and he said he would take the necessary steps with tele- 
graph etc., but doesn't expect the money to be got back. 
He says he had before suspected the railway-people. . . . 
My present money in pocket is merely about 1 3 1 francs. . . . 

Wednesday, ij June. — The Hotel Danieli being expensive 
for a nearly empty pocket, I changed to a room in the 
Hdtel Garni Sandwith, which seems more comfortable at 
1 1 franc per night — hardly more than one-third of the 
price. . . . Telegraphed to G[abriel] for i^20. . . . Wrote 
also to . . . Kirkup, asking for loan of 100 francs or so. . . . 

Thursday, 18 June. — . . . Returned to my lodging, and 
found some one had just been from the Telegraph-Office. 
Walked thither, and find it is a Post-Office order from good 
kind old Kirkup for 300 francs, three times the sum I had 
named. Found also that there was another telegram at the 
Banker Blumenthal's from Gabriel, to say that he would send 



3U HOSSETTI PAPERS 

the ;i{^20 through bank this morning. Thus all goes well again. 
. . . Then to a wild-beast show set up on the Riva Schia- 
voni very near my lodging. I find it a somewhat important 
show of its class : they call it Schmidt's Prussian Menagerie. 
Schmidt performs in a cage with two spotted and a black 
panther. Then Mrs S[chmidt] (seems a Frenchwoman) — 
S[chmidt] being at her side — with the lioness and three 
lions, two hyaenas, and a bear, all together. Then S[chmidt] 
with four lions. All this was very interesting. The noble 
old lions were made to make all sorts of jumps over sticks 
etc. ; and, when they had done this, they huddled their 
heads together in a corner, as if they felt their humiliation. 
Their general aspect was as if to say, " We will do what 
we must, but certainly no more." The lioness seemed 
rather more snappish than the lions : Madame S[chmidt] 
most intrepid, but still a certain air of fluttered nerves. 
Then the elephant did a good deal, including playing a 
barrel-organ, and holding a man on her trunk : and a blue- 
nosed monkey, dressed as a cook, served her dinner — irre- 
sistibly laughable. Then some crocodiles and boas. All 
these performances took place within a yard or so distance 
from me. Returning to my lodging for the night, I find 
an official from Mantua has been enquiring for me. He 
returns almost immediately, and enters very attentively into 
the details of my affair. He says (contrary to the previous 
officials) that the key of the hat-box is by no means one 
very likely to be possessed in counterpart by people here. 
He has a particular person belonging to the railway in his 
eye as the delinquent, either at Mantua or Venice. He 
says the robbery is very unlikely to have taken place during 
the 2j hours' stop at Verona, where all the baggage is 
left out exposed to view. . . . 

Friday, \g Jtme. — ... To San Giovanni e Paolo. They 
have transported hither from Cosenza the bodies of the 
two Bandieras and Moro,* and buried them in the 
church, with their names inscribed ; and a design for a monu- 
ment is already made or in making. The Chapel of the 
* Italian patriots, put to death towards 1846. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DLVRY, 1868 515 

Rosary, in which the Peter Martyr and the Bellini were 
burnt, is still in a ruinous state. . . . The head of the 
assassin [from the Peter Mm-tyr^ has been saved, and will 
go to the Academy ; * and fragments of the frame etc. were 
found, sufficient to show that the picture was really burned 
(a suggestion had reached me that the supposed burning was 
all a dodge of the priests). The cause of the fire is yet 
uncertain, and people seem to dwell much on the suspicion 
of incendiarism. Query : Motive ? Answer : To carry away 
the picture in the confusion (it was on the eve of removal 
by the Government to the Academy). . . . Went again to 
the beast-show, to see (after a repetition of yesterday's per- 
formances) M. Schmidt with the polar bear. The polar 
bear is regarded as a beast unamenable even to the reason 
of a lion-tamer : the performance with him consists only 
in being in the same cage, and throwing with rapidity bit 
after bit of meat, for which he jumps over a table. These 
are thrown to the opposite corners successively, so that 
■ P[olar] B[ear]'s attention is occupied incessantly in different 
directions, and is diverted from Schmidt. I can't make out 
distinctly that the lions retain their claws : their teeth are 
of the extremest obviousness. 

Saturday, 20 June. — Visited the Ducal Palace. ... I 
still think Tintoret's Paradise puts-in a fair claim for being 
regarded as the finest picture in existence : I looked at it 
a long hour. The four Tintorets in the Anticollegio are 
cleaned, and in parts painfully restored, especially the figure 
of Ariadne : and various other Tintorets and Veroneses 
passim have suffered the same piteous fate. Saw the 
Sotto-Piombi. One chamber is kept unaltered : certainly 
a dark and distressful abode, but I discover nothing horrible 
in it. Other rooms are thrown together, so that one loses 
the sense of the confined space. All, as far as I see, have 
solid wooden ceilings, belonging (so the custode says) to 
the original condition of the cells : and I can testify that, 

* I have been, since this was written, several times to the Venice 
Academy, but without seeing this head of the assassin : what has 
become of it ? 



316 itOSSETTl PAPERS 

on this day of full June heat (though less hot than previous 
days), the ordinary allegation that the cells were "burning 
hot under the leads" has no validity. . . . The Gondolier 
whom I took after this says that affairs are wretchedly 
stagnant, and the introduction of paper-money (hitherto 
unknown) a great grievance. Neapolitans have been placed 
in all the chief military or governmental positions, by no 
means to the satisfaction of the Venetians. The Duke of 
Bordeaux is gone, and could not return unless the Govern- 
ment permits him. . . . 

Monday^ 22 June. — . . . Called at Blumenthal's, and find 
that Gabriel has good-naturedly sent me iJ'30 instead of 

;^20. . . . 

Wednesday, 24 June. — . . . Left Venice 10.30 A.M. . . . 
Reach Milan soon after 6, and put up at our old Hotel 
Cavour. All the street leading to it from the railway seems 
to me new. After dinner walk down to the Duomo. Dear 
old Milan, the first Italian city I knew in '60, has vanished 
from the face of the earth, and a demi-semi-Hausmannized 
substitute for it exists, and is still called Milan. The space 
before the Cathedral-front is immensely enlarged, and their 
blessed Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele is a mushroom of 
astonishing growth. I suppose one must admit it to be 
the first thing of its kind in Europe : twenty-four or so 
statues of illustrious Italians. It seems incredible, yet as 
far as I can discern it is a positive fact, that neither Luini (!) 
nor even Da Vinci (! !) is included. . . . 

Thursday, 25 June. — . . . Pass Magenta ... on the 
road to Arona, where one has to stay up to near midnight. 
Put up at the Albergo d' Italia. Engaged a boat on the 
lake for two hours. . . . My boatman had fought under 
Garibaldi in '59, and told me a great deal about the opera- 
tions of that campaign — how Garibaldi would summon his 
men at midnight or soon after to descend a mountain bare- 
foot, and take the Austrians somewhere by surprise. An 
attempt of the Garibaldians on a fort thwarted by the 
timidity of their guides, with much slaughter resulting, etc. 
etc. He speaks highly of Garibaldi's sons. Garibaldi is a 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 317 

famous oarsman, as he showed on this Lago Maggiore. . . . 
Arona (though Murray says nothing of it) contains one or 
two good pictures. In the chief Church, S[anta] M[aria] 
der^r Innocenti, an ancona in several compartments by 
Gaud[enzio] Ferrari, the chief subject The Nativity — a 
superior specimen. An Adoration of the Shepherds by 
Andrea Piani, light emanating from the Infant, as in Cor- 
reggio : I suppose this picture may be as late as 1700. It 
has a certain academic tinge, but is really remarkable for 
grace and dignified propriety. In the Church of San 
Graziano a fine old picture, c. 1490, by Gaudenzio (some- 
thing — I think the name given was a little like Meneghini), 
Virgin and Child with numerous Saints. There is also a 
singularly grand composition of the Three Maries ; which 
looks to me more like a tolerably well-restored Veronese 
than anything else, though it seems also to have a certain 
tinge of Michelangelo's school. , . . 

Saturday^ 27 Jime. — . . . Came on in the afternoon to 
Martigny (Hotel du Cygne). . . . 

Sunday, 2"^ June. — . . . Make up my mind to ... go . . . 
to Pierre-a-voir, a fine peak nearer here . . . 7671 feet high. 
. . . One of the guides had been a soldier in the Swiss corps 
under King Bomba, and had (what I never heard before) a 
good word to say of that potentate — not of Bombino. . . . 

Tuesday, 30 June. — . . . Took the omnibus to Ferney. 
The Voltairian section of the house now shown is the 
library, bedroom, and over-arched alley of trees : the last a 
charming walk, and much of interest in all. This is said 
to be unchanged. ... A statue to the Virgin, on the 
declaration of her Immaculate Conception, was erected in 
'56 in Voltaire's Ferney, by the inhabitants ^' exultantes" in 
the definition of the doctrine : a curious satire on the labours 
of common sense. The church Voltaire erected is still 
standing, and bears his inscription, but it is unused and 
vacant. The servant who shows one over the house always 
says " Monsieur de Voltaire." 

Wednesday, i Juiy. — . . . Started for Paris, staying mid- 
way at Chalons-sur-Saone. . . . Museum interesting chiefly 



318 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

as containing some cameras and other photographic relics 
of Niepce, a native of Chalons, and here termed the inventor 
of photography. His portrait shows a face something like 
the minor Bonapartes. . . . 

Friday^ 3 July. — . . . Home by Boulogne and the Thames, 
arriving Saturday 4th, about noon. 

Friday, 10 July. — About 2 P.M. Cayley came to me at 
Somerset House, to say that Swinburne had just had an 
accident at the British Museum. He fell forward . . . and 
struck his head against an iron railing or something of 
the kind. ... I went round at once, and found that he had 
been taken home to his lodgings : and the attendant outside 
the Reading-Room, to whom I spoke, did not seem to lay 
any great stress on the occurrence. . . . 

Sunday, 12 July. — Lunched with Legros, who has lately 
had a second child, a daughter, born to him. He has various 
pictures done or in hand. A portrait of Jones, all but 
finished, excellent. Two (or I believe there are more) large 
water-colour landscapes, one already hung up in Constantine 
lonides' house (at which I saw it in the afternoon). Three 
or more of his favourite church-subjects in progress. A 
design for a large picture he means to do of The Martyrdom 
oj Sebastian, to go to Paris next year : I think the merit 
of the design much marred by his having set the archers so 
close to the Saint. The Government gave him only £'&o for 
the Stephen, and ^120 for the Amende Honorable, purchased 
for the Luxembourg. Legros has got back from the owner 
(in exchange for another picture) the Ex Voto, and wishes 
to present it to our National Gallery (or, as he supposes, 
S[outh] Kensington people — I wrote in the evening to set 
him right on this point) : he wishes in the first instance to 
feel his way as to the acceptance and creditable hanging of 
the picture. He believes that Millet means henceforth to 
exhibit little or nothing. , , . 

Monday, 13 July. — Met Brett in the street. ... He says 
art is in an absolutely stagnant state this year as regards 
sales. Went round with Gabriel to see Swinburne. He 
is in capital spirits, with health apparently to correspond : 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 319 

a little plaistering on his forehead. He says that the 
closeness of the Museum Reading-Room on that excep- 
tionally hot day quite overcame him. He had to bear it 
a long while, awaiting a friend with whom he had an ap- 
pointment : but at last, rising to go, he was taken with 
instant faintness, and fell. Everybody on the spot showed 
him the greatest attention : and he receives most cordially 
Browning's attention in calling yesterday. He believes 
the R.A. pamphlet sells very well. He has written little or 
no poetry of late. A month or two ago he discovered that 
his MSS. of the play of Bothivell dind of Tristram and Yseiilt 
(a goodish deal written of each) were missing (perhaps lost 
in a cab), and he has never got a clue to them since. A 
great plague this. . . . He has lately met Longfellow, and 
likes him much ; finding him very unaffected, straight- 
forward, and free from uneasy egotism. Mazzini says that, 
within about five months from now the republican flag 
will be waving over Rome : this he said lately, among inti- 
mates, to a lady who was proposing to go to Rome, and 
whom he advised to wait awhile. . . . 

Tuesday^ 14 July. — Gabriel is painting a portrait of Mrs 
Morris, seated, in a blue silk dress : one of the figures he 
painted-in of her when she was staying at Chelsea. We 
dined (for the first time) in the tent, very agreeably. . . . 

Sunday^ 19 Jidy. — Sala, Swinburne, and Whistler, dined 
at Chelsea. Sala speaks of himself as in his thirty-fifth 
year : I had fancied him four or five years older. He says 
that Hannay's salary as Consul at Barcelona will be i^6oo 
a year. He has been escorting Dore through the niauvais 
lieux of London : D[ore] was much pleased with the squalid 
cellar-shops in the Seven Dials district. He is an agree- 
able companion — the reverse of mealy-mouthed. S[ala] 
understands that he has laid-by ;^25,ooo, which seems by 
no means more than one might expect. S[ala] saw Lincoln 
two or three times in America, and thought well of him : 
but says his manners were unquestionably such as would 
be called bad in society. . . . Talk about the newly-dis- 
covered MS. poem (Epitaph) attributed to Milton. Sala 



320 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

contends against its genuineness. Says the initial called 
J. is rather a P : also that Milton was wholly blind in 1650, 
and (he thinks, but would have to look further into this) 
not likely to have been using his eyes in writing in 
October 1647 — the date of the poem. Swinburne, Gabriel, 
and myself, believe that the poem is in all probability 
Milton's — Swinburne the most decisively of the three. I 
can't say I think it a fine poem, however. . . . 

Friday, 24 July. — Scott and his Wife dined in Euston 
Square. . . . S[cott] says that Ruskin gave Howell i^200 to 
set himself up in his new house at North End, Fulham ; 
and that it was mainly by R[uskin]'s wish that H[owell] 
went there — the object being that he may be close to Jones, 
and keep him up in health and spirits. H[owell] buys for 
R[uskin] almost everything that J[ones] paints. . . . 

Tuesday, 28 July. — Called to see Whistler's pictures. He 
is doing on a largeish scale for Leyland the subject of women 
with flowers, and has made coloured sketches of four or 
five other subjects of the like class, very promising in point 
of conception of colour-arrangement . . . Mrs Whistler * 
says that things were still dreadfully bad for the Southerners 
when she was lately in America : one lady of fortune of her 
acquaintance reduced to teaching in a school of nigger 
children. . . . Gabriel tells me that. . . . Brown is suffering 
from another sharp attack of gout — feet and hands. 

Wednesday, 29 July. — Hotten, whom I met in the street, 
says that the R. A. Notes have sold 1300 (or 1500, I for- 
get which) copies — not a large number. Swinburne, who 
was to have left town on Tuesday of last week, was still 
here last Monday. So strong is the prejudice against Whit- 
man in America that H[otten] has not even yet succeeded 
in getting an American publisher for the Selection : he 
is expecting however to arrange soon with a Joint-stock 
Company. — W[arington] Taylor asks me to be one out 
of three trustees for his Wife, on her coming into the rever- 
sion of his property : he is now at Bognor. I write consent- 
ing. . . . 

* The Mother of the Painter. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI—DIARY, 18G8 321 

Sunday, 2 August. — Woollier called. He has done an 
OpJtelia, and is engaged on the Paliucrsioii for Palace Yard : 
this he finds a tough job, the face in old age being much 
the reverse of sculpturesque. He would like (and 1 quite 
agree in that view) to represent Palmerston more in his 
prime — say towards age of fifty-five — but does not think 
the commissioning body would countenance this. He says 
that the Emanuel PJiilibert Monument at Turin, nominally 
by Marochetti, is well known to have been done by a 
French sculptor of great talent, Donnet or Dommet : this 
work he admires much. The price he gave for Millais's 
early picture of Keats's Isabella was ^630. Hunt has been 
gone for about a month back, and is now in Florence. 

Monday, 3 August. — Tupper called at Somerset House. 
He is thinking of going to Rome about Christmas, and 
started the query whether I could go too. I should much 
wish to see Rome again ; and said I would consider about 
it when the time comes, and let him know. 

Tuesday, 4 Augiist. — The improvement in Christina's 
health continues. Gabriel went off yesterday with Howell 
to spend a few days with the Leylands at Speke Hall. 
A bat entered the studio at Chelsea in the evening, 
and continued flying about for perhaps a full hour : Dunn 
and I endeavoured to catch him, but without success. 
There was lately here a brood of three ducklings. Two 
were murdered by the cat, who brought them in misplaced 
triumph to show to the servants, and the third has been 
tossed to death by the peahen. 

Wednesday, 5 August. — Furnivall having asked me 
whether I would do for the Chaucer Society a prose- 
translation of Boccaccio's Filostrato (as illustrating C[haucer]'s 
Troylus), or else a collation of the two poems, I replied that 
I was not much inclined to undertake the translation, but 
would do the collation in course of time, if wished for. 

Thursday, 6 August. — Furnivall closes with this offer, and 
leaves me a Chaucer. . . . 

Tuesday, ii August.— Q.2iOx\Q\ has been back from Speke 
Hall since Saturday. It seems that, about two days before 

X 



322 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

going thither, his sight began to fail in a somewhat alarming 
manner, and has continued getting worse ever since. He 
has consulted a German oculist, Bader, recommended by 
Howell. B[ader] gave him a lotion, saying that it would for 
a while damage the sight. G[abriel], having applied it to 
the right eye, found during the course of to-day that the 
pupil of that eye had become very much enlarged (besides 
its sight deteriorated). This alarmed him (though my im- 
pression is that the symptom is a matter of course, and 
harmless) ; and he went back to Bader's, but did not find 
him in : will return to-morrow. B[ader] tells him that he 
will not lose his sight ; but G[abriel] thinks he is ominously 
silent as to any improvement of it. For the present G[abriel] 
is quite unable to paint. However, I am in hopes that 
general nervousness and anxiety may account for much, and 
the sight itself be not much harmed for a permanence, 
G[abriel] wants for the present to get some one to read to 
him in the day. He has had of late to give a good deal of 
money to W[arington] Taylor ; and makes besides, I under- 
stand, an annual allowance to poor old Maenza,* who stands 
in need of assistance. At the R.A. (which he did not visit 
till towards its close) he thought highly of Millais's Poisioners, 
and VVatts's sculpture ; very badly of Moore's Azaleas. . . . 

IVedftesday, 12 August. — Gabriel saw Dr Bader, who tells 
him the enlargement of the pupil means no harm. G[abriel] 
is somewhat better to-day, and less out of spirits on the 
general question of his sight. . . . 

Friday^ 14 August. — Gabriel called to-day to consult 
Dr Gull as to his general health, but did not find him in ; his 
eyes are so far useable that he can read and write without 
inconvenience, and yesterday he painted a little. Dunn . . . 
called on Dr Bader to enquire privately what the state of 
the eyes really is : Dr B[ader] distinctly affirms that there 
is nothing wrong with them organically — their weakness 
depending upon the general health. G[abriel] is now in 

* An Italian settled with his Wife at Boulogne : an old family-friend 
who had housed Gabriel in 1843 and again in 1845, when rather out of 
health, 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 323 

correspondence with Scott, who wishes to dispose of his 
Brother's two pictures, lately in the Newcastle Reading- 
room,* to some purchaser of large gallery-pictures ; it seems 
he would take ^^250 for the two. After dinner in the tent I 
read aloud some of the poems of Ebenezer Jones, which I 
have not looked at these fifteen years or so. I find their 
capacity, and fine style in passages, fully equal to what I 
used to suppose, and better than I expected they would now 
seem to me. . . . 

Saturday^ 15 August. — Bought a portion of Taylor's blue 
china for £2. 12s. Gabriel went to-day to the Surgeon 
Durham, to get set right in a matter which has been wrong 
this long while. This was done with every appearance of 
success, and no pain worth speaking of — and his head also felt 
relieved immediately afterwards, as if from the same cause. . 

Monday, 17 A^igust. — A notion has for some years been 
in my head of writing a book which I propose calling TJie 
Cliristianity of Christ : being a quotation of every speech 
the Gospels attribute to him, with free enquiry as to the 
real meaning and bearing of these utterances. As far as I 
know, no such book has ever yet been written : perhaps I 
shall never finish it, or never get it published — and at an}' 
rate it will of course be most deficient from several points 
of view : yet I should like much to make the experiment. 
At last I to-day began the work at Somerset House.f . . . 

Thursday, 20 August. — Gabriel had an idea of getting 
me to accompany him out of town, to which I had most will- 
ingly assented, it being apparently compatible with Somerset 
House business during the greater part of next week (only) ; 
but it now seems even this will not be possible, Mitchell 
being taken ill with his liver.| 

* These were Achilles over the Body of Patroclus, and Orestes 
pursued by Furies : important works, and in many respects very fine. 
I forget where they are now housed. 

t I carried it on for some while, but did not come at all near to com- 
pleting it. 

I This is a specimen of the obstacles which frequently beset me when 
it would, on other grounds, have been suitable that I should give my 
companionship to my Brother. 



324 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Friday, 21 August. — Mitchell writes to me that he is 
not likely to return any part of next week ; so I must give 
up the idea of accompanying Gabriel. He saw Dr Gull 
yesterday, who says there is nothing organic the matter 
with him, and has ordered some camphor and citrine medi- 
cines, etc. . . . 

Tuesday, 25 August. — Gabriel going on somewhat better 
as regards both health and eyesight : he thinks of going 
down to Miss Boyd and Scott at Penkill. 

Thursday, 27 August. — Dr Heimann . . . does not now 
work with much pleasure at University College, as the 
authorities there have gone in altogether for educating 
with a view to examinations, and this traverses the course 
of instruction Dr H[eimann] would often pursue of his own 
accord. The Japanese students who were at the College 
showed particularly well, not only in mathematics, but also 
(which was a surprise) in the constitutional and other 
history of England. They seemed to be very destitute 
of any notions as to the government or public relations 
of their own country. Charles H[eimann] is now at Hiogo 
in Japan, near the residence of the Mikado, and at the end 
of an immense arm of the sea : he still continues quite en- 
thusiastic about Japan. . . . 

Saturday, 29 August. — , . . Called on Woolner. His 
statue of Sassoon is finished ; Virgilia begun in marble ; 
Pahncrston nearly finished in clay ; OpJielia getting on in 
marble. This is for Jenner,* a companion to the Elaine — 
of which W[oolner] means to do a replica. The Ophelia 
does not seem to me successful : shoulders too narrow, arms 
wanting composition, chest wanting form, general proportion 
not satisfying to the eye, though possibly it is not much out 
by measurement. Still, the mental conception of the figure 
has value. Sassoon very good : Palmerston also satisfactory 
from most points of view, but looks too attitudinizing to me, 
especially the right arm when seen fronting. I looked at 
the numerous pictures and sketches which W[oolner] has 

* Mr Jenner of Edinburgh ; a relative (Brother, I think) of Sir 
William Jenner the Physician. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 325 

lately collected, most of them absurdly cheap : and, after the 
sarcastic tone adopted by Hunt, was surprised at the range 
of merit they exhibit. Some old-master drawings are clearly 
very fine — Vandyck, Titian, Tintoret, etc. ; also Turner's 
water-colour Martigny, Lewis's celebrated Lion and Lioness 
(done, as W[oolner] informs me, at seventeen, and the work 
which established L[ewis]'s great reputation in that line). 
Others may be more open to difference of opinion, but seem 
to me decidedly fine — as a Crome Moonrise, Girtin Sea painted 
in oils, small Constable, Turner study of fish, and some impor- 
tant landscapes by the same. Some others remain over which 
I care little about : and a moderate proportion may be of 
questionable genuineness. There is so little light in the rooms 
that I could not make the close examination which would 
be needed for forming much of an opinion as to this. Al- 
together however I could very conscientiously congratulate 
W[oolner] on his collection, formed very quick and very 
cheap. . . . 

Sunday, 30 August. — Gabriel is still uncertain where he 
shall go to, or when : still wavers towards Penkill, or perhaps 
Stratford-on-Avon. He says that Warington Taylor is 
now, comparatively speaking and for the time being, well. 
Taylor's decorative enthusiasm led him to order of Stennett, 
months ago, a coffin for himself according to a particular 
specimen, picked out from others submitted to him by order ; 
and he vigorously impressed upon S[tennett] the necessity 
of " No nails." . . . 

Friday, 4 September. — Dined with Woolner ; to whom, 
finding him a great admirer of Cotman, I gave the series of 
etchings by that artist, of Norfolk Churches etc., which I 
bought some while ago. Watts,* who went to Australia 
some ten years ago, was here : I find he is now writing on 
The Standard. Also Baines, the African traveller, illustrator 
of books by Livingstone etc. : though short, a handsome, 
strong, determined-looking man, with a slow utterance. 
According to him, no one likes Livingstone personally, and 

* T. E. Watts, who delivered and published a Lecture on Tennyson : 
nothing to do with Watts-Duntou. 



326 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Livingstone's Brother was an encumbrance to the whole 
expedition in which he joined. It seems that, the Brother 
and Baines being stationary at some point while L[ivingstone] 
himself had gone on elsewhither, the Brother accused B[aines] 
of filching some stores ; and L[ivingstone], without asking 
for any explanation, wrote from his remote locality dismissing 
B[aines], and has ever since refused repeated applications for 
a proper investigation. All that B[aines] has as yet been 
able to obtain is a written admission from the Foreign-Office 
that he has demanded an enquiry, which however the Office 
does not think it expedient after this lapse of time to grant. 
Though expressing a strong sense of wrong, B[aines] does 
not run L[ivingstone] down ; on the recent expedition to 
verify the question of his death, he volunteered to go, but it 
was thought better to decline his services. He now wants 
to start off on an Australian exploration. Knows Du 
Chaillu, and is satisfied the admitted errors in his books raise 
no suspicion as to their substantial genuineness. 

Saturday, 5 September. — . . . Called at Chelsea to 
ascertain whether Gabriel is gone. Find he started last 
Tuesday : he has been to Stratford and Warwick — the 
latter being the last address he has given. I don't as yet 
know whether he thinks of going on to Penkill. Dunn is 
at present with him. Finished off my essay on Italian 
Courtesy-Books. 

Sunday, 6 September. — Wrote asking Kirkup ... to 
accept the dedication of this Essay. Began reading Boccac- 
cio's Filostrato and Chaucer's Troylus, for the collation I 
have promised to make of the two for the Chaucer 
Society. . . . 

Monday, 7 September. — Brown called in Euston Square. 
He says that Swinburne was lately invited to stand for 
Parliament, for some place in or near the Isle of Wight,* 
but that he declined. I suppose this must have been an 
invitation from the extreme Democrats : all his expenses 
were to be paid. B[rown] thinks Gabriel ought to go more 

* The Swinburne family, at one time or other, were settled in the 
Isle of Wight. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 327 

into society ; and especially that he should set apart a whole 
afternoon and evening — say Saturday from 3 — for receiving 
visitors in his studio, and entertaining such as he might find 
it convenient to retain. . . . Nolly (not quite fourteen yet) 
is painting a picture of Jason Delivered in Infancy to the 
Centaur : he is doing the background in Hatfield Park. He 
has also designed Danac in the Boat discovered by Fishermen, 
horses exercised on the seashore, etc. B[rown] has joined 
with other Marylebone voters in signing a requisition for 
Hepworth Dixon to present himself as a candidate. 

Tuesday, 8 September. — Sent round to Furnivall the 
Essay on Italian Courtesy-Books. . . . 

Saturday, 12 September. — Gabriel called in Euston Square. 
His head and general health are for the present right enough ; 
his want of sleep still vexatious, but less so than it has been ; 
his eyes bad. The objects flicker before him ; and, even 
when his eyes are shut, that condition of things is not put 
a stop to. His idea as to visiting Coblentz is merely to go 
there to see the great oculist (Mohrer or some such name),* 
and then return. . . . 

Monday, 14 September. — . . . Wrote to . . . Furnivall 
. . . to say that probably I would go the length of 
translating all such portions of the Filostrato as are para- 
phrased in the Troylus. 

Tuesday, 15 September. — Gabriel has now consulted 
Marshall — who, like other medical men, tells him there is 
nothing locally wrong with his sight, but that that is 
influenced by the brain : he does not encourage him to go 
to Coblentz, as being purposeless. However, G[abriel] says 
that his sight goes on rapidly worsening, and that, if it 
continues at the present rate, he will certainly be blind by 
Christmas : he still paints a little from day to day, but 
with effort — being engaged to-day on the blue-silk drapery 
of a half-figure of Mrs Morris commissioned by Mr Graham 
for ;^500.t He talks of making a deed of gift of all his 

* He did not ever do this. 

t This developed into the picture named Mariana (^Measure for 
Measure). 



328 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

property to me ; so that, whatever may befall himself, I 
may be empowered to do the best for all parties con- 
cerned. He also strongly deprecates any posthumous 
exhibiting of his collected works, on the ground that he 
has never done anything to satisfy his own standard. But 
I am still much in hopes that all these gloomy anticipations 
will be dispelled in due course of time. 

Wednesday, i6 September. — . . . Gabriel came round to 
Euston Square ; and not very long after him enter Woolner. 
They have not met at all, I suppose, these three or four 
years ; and there has indeed been an entire estrangement 
and even animosity between them. However, to my relief, 
they saluted amicably enough, and interchanged talk with- 
out any constraint ; and I am in hopes this meeting may 
do much to smoothe down the asperities. Woolner has 
nearly finished his clay model of the Palnierston, which is 
to be in bronze. Hunt has been in Naples, and is now 
back in Florence. Gabriel asked Woolner some particulars 
as to the affection of eyesight from which W[oolner] has 
more than once suffered these two or three years. It 
seems that the man who set him right (with no relapse of 
any serious consequence since then) was the surgeon and 
oculist Critchett, who (unlike some previous doctors) pro- 
nounced the disease to be rheumatism of the eye, and 
very rapidly effected a cure — and in whom, on this and 
other grounds, W[oolner] has the most extreme confidence. 
G[abriel] then referred to his own case ; and W[oolner] 
urgently advises him to go forthwith to Critchett, which 
G[abriel] is quite minded to do : he himself has already 
some acquaintance with C[ritchett], and likes him, though 
he was not aware of the exceptional eminence as an oculist 
which W[oolner] attributes to him. To-day G[abriel] has 
felt some pains at the back of his head. This is to him 
an unpleasant symptom ; inasmuch as one or more of his 
doctors had heretofore asked him whether he felt any 
such pains, and, on being told not, had replied that in 
that case there was nothing locally wrong with the eyes. 
— Brown (as Mrs B[rown] tells us) has to-day taken 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 329 

Nolly round to Richmond Park, to look out for a spot 
whence his background can be carried on : they wish 
Nolly to get this water-colour ready for next Dudley 
Gallery, or, failing that, for the R.A. G[abriel] says that 
B[rown] makes his Son work on the strict Prasraphaelite 
system. . . . 

Friday, i8 September. — Gabriel called at Mr Critchett's 
yesterday, but found he is out of town. He says his eyes 
are to-day worse than ever : has now written to Scott at 
Penkill, proposing to join him. . . . 

Tuesday, 22 September. — . . . Howell was at Chelsea, and 
says he has seen Marshall, who assures him that Gabriel's 
eyes are right ; that his health is for a while broken down 
by overstraining, late hours, etc., and will require some little 
time for recovering, but will also be right with proper atten- 
tion. Bowman called to-day, and also repeats that the eyes 
are unharmed: he bought for 150 guineas a copy* lately 
finished of the Bocca Baciata. . . . 

Thursday, 24 September. — Called to see Chapman's 
pictures.-]- . . . The picture begun from Christina's " Three 
sang of love together " seems to me incurably mulled, and not 
likely to come to anything — though this too has his charac- 
teristic merits. 

Friday, 25 September. — I learn at Chelsea that Gabriel left 
on Wednesday — first for Leeds, and purposing to go on 
thence to Penkill. . . . 

Friday, 2 October.—yi-Ax'x-d, understands that her Italian 
Exercise-book has been by no means successful as yet : only 
about 80 copies of the book itself having sold, and 50 of the 
Key. . . . 

Wednesday, 7 October. — Dunn has received another letter 
from Gabriel saying that he has not settled when to return. 
His eyes would not allow of his working for the present, and 
he gives directions about setting up green blinds in the 
studio. . . . 



* It took a new name, La Bionda del Balconc. 
t See the note to p. 195. 



330 IIOSSETTI PAPERS 

Friday^ 9 October. — Paul * called on me at Somerset 
House. . . . He says that the lady lately married by Hannay 
is his Cousin, Miss H[annay] : the whole family has gone 
with H[annay] to Barcelona. . . . Boyce's house (where 
Gabriel used to live, 14 Chatham Place) is now in a dangerous 
condition through the demolitions adjoining, and he has 
received a warning of the expediency of removing his 
effects. . . . 

Tuesday, 13 October. — Several friends in the evening at 
Euston Square. Nolly Brown is diligently painting his 
background in Richmond Park. Morris has been learning 
Icelandic ; having undertaken, along with an Icelander, to 
translate an Icelandic legend of ancient date, thickly inter- 
spersed with verses. He has an idea of translating the 
Nibelungenlied some day : The Earthly Paradise ought to be 
completed within about a year. He is now doing the story 
of Bellerophon. Lucy Brown says that she not long 
ago witnessed this at the Zoological Gardens. There had 
been two Chimpanzees, one of them named Tom. Tom 
died. The keeper, one day that L[ucy] was there, spoke 
of Tom to the surviving Chimpanzee, which exhibited a 
conscious and emotional appearance, and the tears came into 
its eyes. . . . Gabriel has written to Brown, saying that one 
bad symptom of his eyes — that of seeing flashes etc. when 
the eyes are closed — is waning. Brown says that the recent 
invitation to Swinburne to stand for Parliament came from 
the Reform-League, and was declined by S[winburne] on the 
express advice of Mazzini. Also that the mot d'ordrc of 
the Revolutionary Junto at the present day is not to have 
any single republics set up (as the question, for instance, now 
stands in Spain), as these would be almost sure to fail ; but 
to wait until two or three can be started together. . . . 

Friday, 16 October. — . . . Another letter from Gabriel, 
giving much the same account as hitherto of his eyesight and 
general health : the period of his return continues quite 
uncertain, and his liking for Penkill has reached the point of 

* Benj:miin Horatio Paul, a Scientific Chemist, whom we had known 
through Hannay : I saw a good deal of him towards 1S54. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTl— DIARY, 1868 331 

a vague project of renting the place altogether for a half-year. 
Halliday dined at Chelsea. He is forty-five years of age, and 
speaks with very little contentment of his bachelor-condition. 
He says Millais's present way of painting is to set the model 
and canvas near together ; and continually to retire many 
paces from the canvas, glance at the model, and go up again 
to lay-on a new touch or two. His doctrine is that nothing 
is done until the model and the painted figure are so much 
alike that one might almost take the one for the other in 
a momentary glance. Halliday says that M[illais] is ex- 
ceedingly liberal and kindly in money-matters, eager as he 
is at money-making. . . . 

Tuesday, 20 October. — ... A letter from Gabriel, say- 
ing that he will probably return next Tuesday, along with 
Scott. He also says that he is not better than when he 
left — which refers, I presume, wholly or chiefly to the eyes. 
This is bad news. . . . 

Saturday, 24 October. — Stillman writes wishing me to see 
Dilberoglue about a military-Cretan project of Coroneos, and 
a fund of i^ 10,000 to be raised therefor. This looks rather 
a formidable modicum. . . , 

Thursday, 29 October. — . . . Dilberoglue came by appoint- 
ment in the evening, and promised to see what could be done 
among the Greeks for the new subscription suggested by 
Stillman : he says the suggestion comes a little inopportunely, 
as it is only six weeks ago that the Greeks had been getting 
up another subscription for Cretan purposes. The name 
Dilberoglue is not Greek, but Turkish : it means " hand- 
some " or something to that effect. . . . 

Saturday, 31 October, — Another letter from Gabriel, again 
fixing Tuesday next for his return. He still says that his 
eyes are not better. 

Sunday, i November. — Wrote to Payne (of Moxon's) 
about the suggestion he had made in April last as to my re- 
editing Shelley, As nothing has been done in the matter 
since his calling at Somerset House at Whitsuntide, when I 
was away, I now propose to call on him on Thursday 
next. . . . 



332 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Monday, 2 November. — Stephens writes me that a son was 
born to him on Saturday. — Met Morris and a few others at 
Woolner's. M[orris] has got on with his Icelandic transla- 
tion, and expects to have it out soon after Christmas. Pal- 
grave has been lately in Gladstone's company ; and finds 
that, with all his occupations, he has been making leisure to 
write a kind of index of character for the personages of The 
Iliad. . . . 

Tuesday, 3 November. — Gabriel came back to-night from 
Penkill. He says his eyes are decidedly not better, though 
on the whole I think he seems a little less despondent about 
their essential condition. . . . Scott has finished his pictures 
on the Penkill staircase, done some landscapes of which 
G[abriel] speaks very well, and has also been occupied in 
translating the diary of Albert Durer. He has now returned 
to town with G[abriel]. 

Wednesday, 4 Novejuber. — Finished the actual collating 
of Chaucer's Troylus with Boccaccio's Filostrato. 

Thursday, 5 November. — Called on J. B. Payne with 
regard to the Shelley project. He says that Hogg left the 
Life of Shelley finished, but that the family is averse from 
its appearing ; that Garnett had an idea of writing a Life, 
and had collected some materials, but that this also is in 
abeyance, and may probably not be done ; and that the 
objection of Sir P[ercy] Shelley to full details concerning the 
death of the first Mrs S[helley], followed by the second 
marriage of S[helley], is understood to arise from the fact 
that Sir P[ercy] was born only about a month after the 
second marriage,* and some pains had to be taken to prove 
his legitimacy. The first Wife, Payne says, became strictly 
a prostitute — Shelley not having made any arrangements 
for her support, and being, after he had left England, more 
or less in the dark as to her position. Payne wishes my 
editorial revisions of the text to be, if practicable, such as 
will not render the stereotype-plates useless, but only entail 

* In my Diary I recorded this statement of Mr Payne's, simply as it 
was made. At a later date, finding the statement to be egregiously 
wrong, I wrote against it "wholly incorrect." 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 333 

alterations here and there : he concurs in my proposal of 
occasional notes, accompanying the actual revision of text. 
For this work I proposed to charge £'^0, to which he at once 
acceded : indeed, I suspect it was sensibly less than he had 
expected to be asked. As to the Life, he does not contem- 
plate (though neither is he altogether adverse to) a full Life 
forming a separate book : his idea is a prefatory Life of not 
less than some 50 nor more than some 100 pages : this was 
indeed my own way of putting it. Enquiries will be made 
of Garnett, and full consideration as to the form of Life etc. 
given ; and then I will make a separate undertaking as to 
that. The next issue of the Poems would not be forth- 
coming till eight months or so hence. Payne seems to have 
also some undefined notions as to a re-edition and Life of 
Coleridge ; and I think it possible that he might eventually 
make some proposal to me on this subject also. He is to 
send me at once the various editions of Shelley in his 
possession ; and I shall thence set to work on the text. — I 
find he has {valeat qiiantuvi) an unfavourable impression as 
to the character of Tennyson,* and runs him down even as 
a poet : he regards him as selfish, narrow in money-matters, 
not of lively affections : he is punctilious in paying his score 
in compan)^, and expecting his companions to pay theirs. . . . 
For my own part I have always greatly liked Tennyson in 
personal intercourse ; and seen in him evidence of deep affec- 
tions and much open confidence and kindliness. — Began in 
the evening translating those passages of Boccaccio's Filo- 
strato which are adapted in Chaucer's Troylus. — Dilberoglue 
finds the Greeks here not ready to subscribe for the fund 
proposed by Stillman to carry on operations by Coroneos in 
Crete. 

Friday^ 6 November. — Gabriel consulted Rose yesterday 
as to the proposed deed of gift — or now rather bill of sale 
— in my favour (see 18 September). Rose says that any 
such document would have to be registered, and would no 
doubt be protested against by creditors, and probably set 

* It will be understood that the Firm of Moxon & Co., represented by 
Mr Payne, were as yet the Publishers of Tennyson's poems. 



334 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

aside. . . . G[abriel] has not yet resumed painting ; but 
proposes doing so to-morrow, taking only moderate spells 
of work.* ... He wrote a letter to Ernest Chesneau to- 
day, correcting some of the errors concerning Prperaphael- 
itism, G[abriel], Ruskin, etc., in his book on Fine Art. 
Brown spent the evening with us at Chelsea. . . . His 
advice is that G[abriel] should go abroad for four or five 
months — say to Italy or Portugal : he also spoke highly of 
Montreuil near Boulogne. G[abriel], who was in very good 
spirits all the evening, seems less indisposed to such a plan 
than he usually has been. . . . 

Monday, 9 November. — . . . Have begun reading up 
for the Life of Shellej\ commencing with Hogg : Payne 
has not yet .sent round the editions of the poems for my 
revising. 

Tuesday, 10 November. — . . . Ruskin's love-affair 
(according to Howell as reported by Gabriel) is over. , . . 
Howell went to Ireland, to try to get over the difficulties ; 
and he says he disguised himself as a tramp or labourer 
to obtain an interview, but without effecting the desired 
change of sentiment. , . . Gabriel has not as yet set-to 
at painting, but, in spirits at least, seems much fortified. . . . 

Friday, 13 N'ovcmber. — . . . Mamma tells me that my 
Aunt Eliza says that, on Wednesday morning about 3, 
when I was in fact in bed at Chelsea, she heard me most 
distinctly walk up the stairs at Euston Square, going to 
bed ; pass her door as I always do ; and call out (as I 
never do) " Good night, Aunt Eliza " — to which she responded. 
She was neither asleep nor even in bed — but up and wide 
awake (to take medicine or some such purpose, I presume). 
This is singular : for not only is my Aunt the least fanciful 
person in London, but, as such an incident as that of the 
good-night has never once occurred at all, she cannot be 
confounding one night with another, nor could she have 
fancied the thing through any mere habit or preconception. 

* Here follows a detailed account of the condition of my Brother's 
eyesight. I extracted it in the Memoir published in 1895, and I there- 
fore omit it here. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 335 

I was not (I think) dreaming of her at the time, nor had 
I in any way been particularly thinking of her. Was it 
my tvraitJi ? — Swinburne and Scott dined at Chelsea, and 
Brown came in the evening. Swinburne sa}'s he has 
written nothing of late. . . . He came back a fortnight or 
so ago from his friend Powell's at Etretat : was nearly 
drowned there one day, which happened to be the equi- 
noctial tide, when he had gone out swimming. Had to 
swim-on some three miles and an hour or nearly, the sea 
carrying him irresistibly out — till at last a fishing-boat 
picked him up. Says he felt no compunctions or religious 
impressions in the prospect of death. Has seen a pieuvre 
— very loathsome : the fishermen say it is not (as repre- 
sented by V[ictor] Hugo) formidable, because it never 
attacks. — Brown attended a meeting for Mill's parliamentary 
candidature — having been invited to join his Committee. — 
Mr Purchase, the Brighton clergyman now making so much 
noise in the way of ritualism, is^ as I thought, the same 
one who wrote to Swinburne eulogizing the Poems and 
Ballads at the time when the phials of wrath were being 
emptied thereon. 

Saturday^ 14 November, — Swinburne and 1 had been 
talking last night about Shelley's Poems by Peg Nicholson 
(to me as yet unknown) : and, strangely enough, Swinburne 
has to-day found a copy of this almost unattainable book 
— a reprint of 25 copies having lately been made, and one 
of them down in a bookseller's catalogue. Swinburne left 
the book with me at Somerset House : he is now going 
down to Holmwood. ... 

Tuesday, 17 November. — . . . Payne sent me round the 
editions of Shelley to-night, for my editorial work. 

Wednesday, 18 November. — The papers announce, to my 
sorrow, the probably mortal illness of Mazzini. — Began 
revising Shelley's poems. . . . 

Sunday, 22 November. — Engaged with scarcely any pause 
on the Shelley revision. By the help of the DcB7no7i of the 
World, I have now constructed a text of Qtieen Mab which 
is certainly, I think, a good deal preferable to any yet 



336 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

issued. I make incessant corrections on points of minor, 
and some of major, importance ; and consider that nothing 
short of a completely new edition will be satisfactory. This 
would set aside the stereotype-plates of one of the now 
current editions (say the one-volume edition, which is that 
which I am actually working upon) : the other two stereo- 
typed editions — the large single-volume, and the three- 
volumes — might, if preferred and so far as I am concerned, 
remain unaltered. . . . 

Tuesday, 24 November, — Went with Dilberoglue to the 
Spartalis. Many photographs of Miss S[partali] by Mrs 
Cameron lying about : only one, as far as I notice, goes 
pretty near to doing her justice. Dilberoglue and I, as 
we went along, spoke of the rumoured (but still question- 
able) death of Mazzini.* D[ilberoglue] said strikingly : 
" He was for all those long years the only light in the 
sick chamber of Europe — never out, never flickering." 
D[iIberoglue] is naturalized as Englishman : very bitter 
against Layard, to oppose whom in these current elections 
he, though a decided Radical, took an active part for the 
Conservative candidate, Alderman Cotton. Layard how- 
ever came in with no difficulty. . . . 

Friday, 27 November. — Gabriel, being still, from the state 
of his eyes, unable to resume painting, has been looking 
up his poems of old days, with some floating idea of offer- 
ing some of them to The Fortnightly Revieiv, and at any 
rate with a degree of zest which looks promising for some 
result with them. Scott is going to offer to the Fortnightly 
his poem of The Prodigal: the Editor (Morley) is inclined 
to make poems of some substantial length a feature of the 
magazine. Scott says that Lewes, in his youth, projected 
a Life of Shelley, and was (he believes) in possession of 
various materials for the purpose, from Leigh Hunt and 
others. . . . 

Sunday, 29 November. — Mamma reminds me of what I 
knew years ago, but had entirely forgotten — that, when she 
was with the Dickinses at Leatherhead, from about 18 16 
* The rumour of his death was incorrect. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 337 

to 1820, Shelley's Brother was a pupil with the local clergy- 
man, Mr Burmister. She remembers him as remarkably 
handsome, and as of the age of twelve or thirteen. . . . The 
name of Shelley himself was held in horror. . . . 

Wednesday, 2 December. — Went to the lonides. . . . 
Hiillah (whom I see again for the first time after meeting him 
years ago at the Rintouls') * expresses especial admiration 
of Christina's poems. 

Thursday, 3 December. — Keeling, the wine - merchant, 
called at Somerset House. Hitherto he had neither 
known nor thought anything about Spiritualism. But, 
happening to be lately with a friend who paid some atten- 
tion to it, he sat down to a table, and was astounded to find 
raps and messages coming forthwith — tables and sideboards 
moving across the floor — etc. The messages seem chiefly 
to have been confessions of damnation from infidels and bad 
characters — Voltaire, George IV., Baron Nicholson,*!- Tiberius. 
It seems however that the only indication of this damnation 
was that three — or still worse two — raps were given in reply 
to the question whether the spirit was in a happy or unhappy 
condition. No fully defined messages in words were given ; 
and Keeling had indeed heard nothing about the customary 
use of the alphabet. This interpretation of two or three raps 
is new to me. . . , 

Sunday, 6 Decendier. — Write to Dilberoglue, sending him 
a long extract from Stillman's last letter concerning the 
proposed expedition of Coroneos : to Tupper, agreeing to 
prospective Roman trip towards end of March ; to Allingham 
on various Shelley points, etc. 

Moriday, 7 December. — Gabriel has now resumed work ; 
having begun some crayon heads of Mrs Morris as Pandora 
etc. He gets on with a fair amount of'comfort. . . . 

* Hullah, the Musical Teacher and Conductor. Mr Rintoul was 
Editor of The Spectator when I became (1850) the Art-critic for that 
paper. 

+ Baron Nicholson is perhaps forgotten now. He was (among other 
ventures) a Tavern-keeper in the Strand, and got up the so-called "Judge 
and Jury Society," which did not promote the cause of moral purity. 

Y 



338 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Wednesday', 9 Deconber. — Scott called to look into my 
Shelley notes and revisions. He very generally approved of 
them ; and indeed urges that several of those revisions which 
I have only ventured to suggest in notes should be at once 
incorporated in the text. In one or two cases I may act 
upon this advice at once : in others I think of consulting 
Swinburne and Allingham before deciding anything. If they 
were to agree with Scott, I should probably conform. 
However, I am very much against rash or fancy emendations 
of a text. 

Thursdaj', 10 December. — Acted accordingly with regard 
to the Shelley notes. 

Friday^ 1 1 Deeei/iber. — Gabriel came to Euston Square, 
and asked to hear some of my Shelley notes. He is quite as 
decided as Scott, or more so, in thinking that certain emenda- 
tions should be at once introduced into the text ; indeed, 
he would make conjectural and iiiuiotified emendations to 
an extent which I consider decidedly inexpedient — on this 
ground if no other, that outsiders would raise numberless 
objections against the edition, and it would fall into 
disrepute. . . . 

Tuesday, 15 Deceiiiber. — Dilberoglue writes, giving a 
distinct negative to any chance of promoting among the 
Greeks here Stillman's project of a Cretan invasion by 
Coroneos. 

Wednesday, 16 December. — Macfarren has made a Cantata 
of Christina's Songs in a Cornfield: she received the publica- 
tion from him this morning. Tebbs enquires whether Gabriel 
would lend any of his six-mark china for an exhibition at 
the Burlington Club, to which Huth and others contribute. 
The main object is to test the statement, still maintained by 
several judges, that a quantity of this sort of china is forged — 
i.e., modern work pretending to be three or four centuries old. 
For instance, some pieces bearing the date of last century 
are found so exceedingly like others assigned to the 15th 
century that a suspicion arises against any such great 
difference of date. 

Thursday, \j Decembcj: — Replied to a note from Furni- 



WILLIAM IIOSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 339 

vail, expressing my readiness to look at what Ward is doing 
relative to Chaucer and the Teseide, and to talk over the 
matter with him. 

Friday, i8 December. — Gabriel asked Scott and Brown, 
with myself, to meet Nettleship, who brought his strange 
Blakeish designs of God creating Evil etc. He is deter- 
mined to be a professional artist : his stock of money will 
last him about a year. We all, and I very decidedly, regard 
it as a bad look-out ; as, spite of his obvious force of ideas, 
his executive unadaptabilities are glaring, and I should fear 
hardly conquerable* — at any rate, for pecuniary success. 
His age is twenty-seven. The idea was started that the best 
thing for him to do at once might be to illustrate some 
congenial book ; get Browning to write a preface, or other- 
wise to take it under his wing ; and offer it to a publisher. 
I proposed the Prometheus Unbound : a suggestion received 
with favour. Showed him some Hokusais and other 
Japanese work which took him aback by their power. He 
himself has an excellently good feeling for studies of animals. 
, . . Howell and others are projecting an " Arts Company 
Limited" — Marks as business-man. f H[owell] asked 
Gabriel to take a share in it : he will do so to the extent of 
^250 in the form of works of art supplied. Morris and 
Co. will supply goods at a reduced rate. — Gabriel has just 
written a series of four sonnets — Willow-wood — about the 
finest thing he has done. I see the poetical impulse is upon 
him again : he even says he ought never to have been a 
painter, but a poet instead. 

Saturday, 19 December. — Gabriel wrote a sonnet on 
Death at Euston Square. Tupper, w^ho called on me at 
Somerset House, wishes to do a medallion-head of me ; 
and that, with a view to this, I should sit for a profile- 
photograph. 

Sunday, 20 December. — Wrote to Parsons about the 

* I need scarcely say that Mr Nettleship, settling down into a 
different class of pictorial subjects, coped with and fairly surmounted 
his difficulties. 

t I hardly know whether or how far this project was realized. 



340 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

photographing project ; to StiUman teUing him that Dilbero- 
glue can't get up the Coroneos-raid subscription ; etc. . . . 

Thursday, 24 December, to Wednesday, 30 December. — At 
Gloucester from 26 December with my Uncle Henry. 

Thursday, 31 December. — Returned to London : fine day — 
free from frost, but sufficiently like winter. In pursuance of 
something I had heard from Uncle H[enry], I asked Aunt 
C[harlotte] whether she had any journals of her Brother John 
making mention of Shelley. She has such a journal, appli- 
cable to the year 1816 ; it contains one or two Shelley items 
which will be useful. . . . An Echo-Song of Christina's has 
been set to music by Miss V[irginia] Gabriel, and is dedicated 
to me. 



176. — Thomas Dixon to William Rossettl 

[The first copy of Leaves of Grass that I possessed or saw 
came to me from W. Bell Scott : to him from Thomas Dixon, 
who bought a copy or two which he observed hawked about 
in his town. — The remark upon " one now no more " refers 
to his deceased Wife.] 

15 Sunderland Street, Sunderland. 
16 January 1868. 

Dear Sir, — ... I am truly glad to find you so highly 
appreciate Whitman, and like exceedingly the spirit in which 
you write me of him ; and the one reason amongst many 
that first made me love you and your family was that deep 
sympathy of love you all had for the true, beautiful, and 
natural, in either Nature, literature, or art. . . . W. B. 
Scott was my first master ; to him I owe your friendship. . . . 
I was glad to hear you got Leaves of Grass ; for I never have 
such books but I love them, and long to know where they 
are, and if in loving hands. . . . 

I would like you to get the little book Time and Tide, for 
in it there is some stray ideas of mine that I would fain know 



DR FURNIVALL, 1868 341 

how they fall in with your own on similar topics, and also to 
learn how far these utterances are true in your experience 
of them in life. If the book is liked, I fain would send a 
copy to your Sister whom I once met at Scott's (I forget her 
name now) ; for there is one passage of it was written by me 
thinking over the happy and pleasant hours so spent there by 
one now no more. It is not the poetess, though I love her 
too through her poetry ; but it is other feelings that was made 
manifest to me by that Sister of yours. And her kind 
remembrance of that afternoon, and mention of it to me 
again when I met with her in London, made me feel how 
kind a feeling she had to one almost a stranger until a few 
quiet simple utterances made them friends. . . . — Yours 
trul>', 

T. Dixon. 



177. — Dr Furnivall to William Rossetti. 

3 Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
1 7 Jafittary 1 868. 

My dear Rossetti, — As you kindly took trouble about 
The Lady of SJialolt for me, you are entitled to a copy of 
Tennyson's own account : — " I met the story first in some 
Italian novellc : but the web, mirror, island, etc., were my own. 
Indeed, I doubt whether I should ever have put it in that 
shape if I had been then aware of the Maid of Astolat in 
Mort Arthur y 

Fancy too — he says the Thorolds of Lincolnshire claim to 
be descendants of Godiva, and to have deeds signed by her. 
. . . — Sincerely yours, 

F. J. Furnivall. 

Tell Morris this, some day. 



342 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



lyS. — W. D. O'Connor to William Rossetti. 

Washington. 
zo January 1868. 

My dear Sir, — I beg you will pardon my dela}', wholly 
unavoidable, in acknowledging the receipt of your letter of 
1 1 December, which I did not expect, and which gratified 
me very much. 

I met Mr Whitman shortly after he had received your 
letter of December i6th. He had duly received the previous 
ones also, making three letters from you. He is entirely satis- 
fied with your action, and with Mr Hotten's, in regard to the 
London selection and reprint, and seems pleased with the 
condition into which that enterprise has been shaped. He 
spoke with deep appreciation of you and your letters. 

You apprehend perfectly, and re-state admirably, the 
points I ventured to offer in my letter to Mr Conway for 
your consideration. . . . And I . . . accept with unaffected 
good-nature, as accurately descriptive of my recorded admira- 
tion of our poet, the terms you so good-naturedly employ. 
Yes — in our Western phrase, I acknowledge the corn. " Un- 
qualified," " superlative," — I own those two words as well- 
chosen. And, if you will not be vexed at my saying so, I 
am even a little proud of them. . . . Not that I am oblivious 
to the faults of our poet, or of any of the supreme poets ; 
for I have fully satisfied my censorious part by alluding to 
them, as in the pamphlet where I say, " Making a fair allow- 
ance for faults which no great poem, from Hamlet to the 
world itself, is perhaps without." . . . My critical code, as 
regards these great ones, narrows down to two simple canons 
— To accept : To admire. . . . 

All the geniuses will have a good time with me. And 
profoundly I feel Mr Whitman's claim to rank as one of them. 
Shakespear may excel him as master of the science of inter- 
acting passion ; but Shakespear, in all his wondrous cosmo- 
rama, has no such figure, nor any figure at all, of a man 



BARONE KIRKUP, 1868 343 

primal and abysmal, a living soul boundless and terrible, 
master and summit of all, and resuming and surpassing the 
Universe, such as this poet has created in literature in that 
section of his work called U^a/t Whitman. Ages will pass 
before that thing, so done, can be appreciated. . . . — Very 
truly yours, 

W. D. O'Connor. 



179. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossetti. 

Florence, Ponte Vecchio 2. 
14 February 1868. 

yiy. dear Rossetti, — . . . Your idea is an excellent one 
— a Biography of your Father, besides an Essay on his 
Beatrice. His life was sufficiently adventurous to be very 
interesting to the general public, besides his great discoveries 
in the philosophy of literature, of the Middle Ages in general 
and Dante in particular. . . . There are plenty of Italians 
who would be glad enough — Pasquale Villari of Naples, 
Alessandro d'Ancona of Pisa, P. G. Maggi of Milan, all 
friends of mine. 

I know but little of the Florentines, and that little is 
not in their favour — duplicity and vanity. They were 
always reckoned great diplomats. They were the enemies of 
Dante, and are still, for they have destroyed all the monu- 
ments of his memory that remained in Florence when I first 
came here forty-four years ago. What might still be saved 
are disgracefully neglected and falling to ruin. After their 
fulsome and ignorant vulgar enthusiasm for the commemora- 
tion, they have returned to their wonted indifference, and 
even to persecution. Their ignorant antiquarians have 
endeavoured to make out that Giotto's portrait is spurious 
— but their grounds are so absurd that they are unworthy 
refutation. Still, the ignorant join in the hue and cry : and 
so far indeed they are right, for the present repainted portrait 
has not a line left of Giotto's beautiful fresco, as you may 



344 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

see by the correct tracing of it published by the Arundel 
Society. It is now epuise and the edition all sold, many 
hundreds ; and I have lately made another tracing from 
that, and sent it to the A[rundel] Society on their promise 
to publish a new edition of it, which I hope soon to see. 
It is not a fancy-drawing of mine. I have preserved the 
original talc on which it was traced, and my drawing 
(made at the same time) of the shading of the light and 
shade of the face, from both of which I executed the exact 
likeness published by the Society, after the original fresco 
had been again lost sight of and degraded, deturpato, by 
an ignorant and unprincipled dauber named Marini. The 
whole history of that misfortune would make a good " opuscolo 
delle svcntiire di Jin arifiquario." * It might induce the govern- 
ment to try and remove the coat of detestable ugliness with 
which the beautiful original is covered and again concealed. 
It might be all recovered. The eye of course is gone; for 
the beast made a great hole by pulling out a nail instead 
of cutting it. . . . 

You say the book would be for Italians. It would, both 
for English and Italians. As for Florentines, they are 
either indifferent or wrong-headed, swallowing all the 
rubbish of the priests and Jesuits, and totally ignorant of 
the great discoveries of your Father. And he told me 
they would go on increasing in the Beatrice, especially in 
the third part, as he had saved all the best for the end. 
And so I think, from hints in his letters ; in which he deter- 
mines the greatest fact, that Beatrice and the Filosofia of 
the Convito are the same, and what was the nature of 
Dante's inconstancy for which Beatrice reproached him in 
the Pnrgatorio — and not the foolish story, without any 
authority, of a contadina in the mountains of Casentino or in 
Gubbio. . . . 

Swinburne has had the kindness to send me his Critical 

Essay on Blake. What a wonderful young man he is ! such 

a poet, critic, theologian, classic, metaphysician, connoisseur 

of all arts and sciences, universal ; and, like Dante, his prose 

* Pamphlet of the tribulations of an antiquary. 



FREDERIC SHIELDS, 1868 345 

is as beautiful as his poetr)-. Remember me to him, with all 
my gratitude. 

Adieu, my dear Rossetti ; with old affection, ever yours, 

Seymour Kirkup. 



1 80. — Frederic Shields to Dante Rossetti. 

[As to Warwick Brookes, see my Diar}- (No. 175) for 
7 February etc] 

CoRNBROOK House, Manchester. 
17 February 1868. 

My dear Rossetti, — . , . For the past month — that is, 
ever since Mr M'Connel gave me the opportunity of seeing 
the Sir Tristram — I have meant to write how great pleasure 
I enjoyed in hanging over it ; and, if (as you intimated) you 
relied in any measure on my poor opinion, it will satisfy you 
to know that I indeed think with you that it approaches nearer 
to the highest standard than anything you have yet achieved 
in water-colour. . . . 

Let me say how much the subject of your last note 
gratified me — for I have known Warwick Brookes for some 
years, but not intimately, his disposition being too retiring 
for that. Your information concerning him is not very 
accurate ; for he must be nearer fifty than forty, and has 
a family of six children, the eldest girl being about six- 
teen years. With this young family he has never dared 
to venture to give up a situation as pattern-designer for 
ladies' dresses which he held in a firm here, and which 
brought him in a settled sum per week, for the uncertain 
and fluctuating remuneration attending the profession of 
art. So that all you have seen, and much more, has been 
done during the leisure-hours of his evenings and Saturday 
afternoons. . . . For two years back he has been lying sick 
of consumption ; and his main, perhaps his only, source of 



346 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

income has been the sale of the set of photos with which 
you are acquainted. Sir Walter James has most generously 
exerted himself to spread their circulation, and other friends 
have done their best also. He is too independent in temper 
to accept help in any other way — but, I am certain, would 
feel both grateful and pleased with such assistance as you 
can secure for him in this way. The price of the set is 
four pounds. I took the liberty, believing it would gladden 
his sick chamber, of showing him your letter on Saturday 
night ; and, though he was too weak to read it himself, he 
most earnestly expressed his estimation of your approval. 
. . . — Most truly yours, 

Frederic J. Shields. 



1 8 1. — Warington Taylor to Dante Rossetti. 

[?i868.] 

My dear Gabriel, — I was in town Monday, just to give 
some assistance to our new clerk, and put him in the way 
of our methods. 

There certainly will be a considerable sum in hand in 
April, and it will be the work of the members to deal 
with it. I think they ought to insist on Webb receiving a 
certain sum : he has charged for his designs at the Palace 
an absurdly small sum ; three times the amount would 
have been under the mark. 

Then as to a distribution of money amongst the members, 
I think it proper to say that, as they form a Company, that 
Company has a debt to Morris for capital lent to start the 
firm. This must be paid off before the firm can claim 
profits for itself; or, if members agree, a certain amount must 
be paid, and afterwards another amount divided amongst the 
members themselves ; for, although personally riches may 
not be of advantage to Morris (! !) this £'J00 is an absolute 
debt due to him by the Company. . . , 



WARINGTON TAYLOR, 18G8 347 

I think it wise to tell you of the difficulties that have 
to be encountered in conducting that business. Morris is 
very nervous about work ; and he consequently often sud- 
denly takes men off one job and puts them on to another. 
There is in this great loss of time. When I was there, I 
was able in some way to counteract this ; I used to quiet 
him. 

(2) I was able to torment for the designs, and this is the 
great point. I began long before they were wanted, and kept 
on at Ned ; wrote to him every other day, made him promise 
dates, and so on ; consequently we never got behind-hand 
with work. But I can assure you that this is the great 
difficulty of the place. If you have no designs, you must go 
on to other jobs ; and nothing is so bad as having six jobs in 
hand instead of two. This is the crying evil of the place, 
and which I devoted my whole attention to, and succeeded 
really in keeping it down. But, directly I am away, it 
commences again. Morris will start half a dozen jobs : 
he has only designs for perhaps half of them, and therefore 
in a week or two they have to be given up. They are put 
away, bits get lost, have to be done over again : hence great 
loss of time and money. 

I am quite certain that the only reason why you were not 
making money two years ago was because there was no 
system. Too many jobs were in hand at once, and there 
was no regular supply of designs. N.B. — As an instance 
of this : in November I got a quantity of small jobs from 
Ned. I left however one cartoon still to get from him, 
before he began the South Kensington series. When in 
town on Monday, I found that cartoon had never been 
done yet. You understand how detrimental this is to 
business. If I had been there, that would not have 
occurred. Such things going on for twelve months would 
soon alter the state of affairs ; and this is the thing that 
causes fear in me for the future, nothing else but this. And 
Webb will fully bear out what I say ; he knows well this 
is the rock upon which the firm will be wrecked. 

(3) Morris always charges too low ; he does not like, 



348 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

naturally enough, to be thought greedy and avaricious, and 
consequently, if he makes a contract by himself, charges 
invariably too little. 

You are now perfectly posted up in the state of affairs — 
you know as much as I do myself. — Ever yours truly, 

W, Taylor. 



182. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossetti. 

[The reply of Dante's " spirit " concerning Beatrice means 
" she was an idea in my head."] 

Florence, Ponte Vecchio 2. 
23 March 1 868. 

My dear Rossetti, — . . . I asked Dante if Beatrice was 
a Florentine lady. — No. — Who was she ? — Era un' idea delta 
viia testa. . . . 

I think I have discovered that the date of Beatrice's death 
was precisely that of his losing his nobility, and entering the 
plebeian rank in the guild of the physicians and apothecaries. 
I must enquire further about it. 

Dante's ghost confirmed your Father's opinion. The 
Veltro was the Emperor. The Italians think, Can Grande, 
because of his name. And so did your Father at first, but he 
corrected it, and Dante confirmed him to me. It is for 
Dante's sake as well as your Father's that I wish for a 
biography of G[abriele] R[ossetti]. My long intercourse (of 
twelve years) with him (Dante) and inutnal services have 
made me feel a real friendship for him and other spirits. 
They are now eight habitues — Dante being one. They come 
about three times a week, and give us excellent advice and 
instruction. I follow them even when they differ from the 
doctors or theologians. ... I have had above fifty spirits in 
this room, besides twenty evil ones. I have seen little, only 
four or five times, but enough of their action, and have often 



HORACE SCUDDER, 1868 349 

heard and felt them. I still continue the most jealous pre- 
cautions against trick. . . . — Ever yours, 

Seymour Kirkup. 



183. — Horace Scudder to William Rossettl 

[The designs of Mr La Farge are, I suppose, only very 
scantily known on this side of the Atlantic: to be widely 
admired, they only need to be known widely.] 

Editorial Office of TJie Riverside Magazine for Young People. 

Riverside, Cambridge, Mass, 
27 March 1868. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — I have for some months past 
had the charge of a magazine for the young. . . . The only 
artist who gives me solid satisfaction is Mr John La Farge, 
who unfortunately has been prevented by many causes, 
principally ill-health, from doing all that we wish he would 
do. . . . He did several drawings for Enoch Arden — an 
edition published here by Ticknor and Fields, which was 
hastily planned and as hastily executed ; La Farge, for 
one, doing some of his work bolstered up in bed, and the 
blocks put into the press at midnight, fifteen minutes after 
the engraver had taken his proof . . . 

I feel confident that you would be interested to see the 
photographs which I enclose. The blocks were of the same 
size — that; of the larger of the photographs. The Wolf-Charmer 
was engraved first in our December number for last year. 
The Pied Piper in the January number. . . . 

La Farge has made some admirable drawings decorating 
Browning's Men and Women. I hope some day he may 
publish them in some form. . . . — Faithfully yours, 

Horace E. Scudder. 



350 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



184. — William Graham to Dante Rossetti. 

[Mr Graham was at this time an M.P. for Glasgow. The 
occurrence which introduced him first into my Brother's 
studio was I think this : a Mr Hamilton was a partner in 
the same Firm with Mr Graham, and was well known to Mr 
Leyland : the latter took Hamilton round to my Brother, and 
Hamilton soon afterwards took Graham round. Mr Graham 
became a valuable patron and an affectionate friend, Rossetti 
was much attached to him, and with good reason. It will be 
perceived that the subject for which Mr Graham commissions 
Rossetti in this letter, Dante's Dream, is the same which the 
Painter had offered (No. 171) to Mr Matthews, but without 
definite result] 



44 Grosvenor Place. 
9 April— [liZe?,']. 

Dear Mr Rossetti, — ... I cannot resist the temptation 
to avail of your offer to paint Dante's Dream for me, although 
the expenditure of so large a sum upon a picture is what I 
scarcely feel entitled to indulge in. . . . 

Please then accept the commission at the price you name, 
1 500 guineas. As regards size, I should be sorry to put any 
restraint upon you that might be prejudicial to the work or 
disappointing to yourself, and would prefer leaving it entirely 
to you. I should think about 6 feet X 3J about as full a size as 
one could hope to find room for comfortably anywhere. Will 
this be sufficient to do justice to it ? I should like to have the 
offer of any drawing you may make for it, if agreeable to 
you. . . . 

Is it too much to ask that, should you in the meantime 
take up any smaller picture of such a subject as in tone and 
feeling to be in my way (of which I dare say you can by this 
time more or less judge), you would kindly offer it first to 
me ? . . . — Yours very sincerely, 

Wm. Graham. 



BARONE KIRKUP, 1868 351 



185. — Camden Hotten to William Rossettl 

[The review of Whitman written by Mr Kent, a-propos of 
my Selection, was enthusiastic in a very high degree : I think 
that admirers of the poet have not sufficiently borne it in 
mind.] 

74 AND 75 Piccadilly. 
21 April 1868. 

My dear Sir, — I have much pleasure in sending you a 
copy of The Sun containing a most flattering review of 
W. Whitman by Mr Charles Kent, the Editor. I have 
sent the poet a copy, also one of the Lloyd's notice which 
I also enclose. . . . 

I have just been talking with Mr Swinburne over the 
desirability of publishing some notes upon the forthcoming 
Royal Academy Exhibition. He is quite disposed to act with 
you — if you are willing. I should like to issue such a 
critical pamphlet each year — after the manner of Mr Ruskin 
in time gone by. 

Whitman is now a regular correspondent. . . . — Yours 
truly, 

John Camden Hotten. 



186. — Baron E Kirkup to William Rossettl 

Florence, Ponte Vecchio 2. 
26 April 1868. 

My dear Rossetti, — . . . Dante showed immense courage 
in doing as much as he did. They attempted to burn him 
and his Coimnedia ; but they were too late, and only burned 
his Monarchia, and put it in the Index ! They had not the 
courage to do more. But no edition was ever to be printed 
in the capital of Italy until the French were in possession of 
it during the Revolution. . . . 



352 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

I was the cause of your Father's portrait being placed in 
the theatre of the Commemoration at Santa Croce. . . . 
G[abriele] R[ossetti] was a scholar, a theologian, a poet, a 
patriot, and a magnificent writer of the finest language in the 
world. . . . 

Dante, with two other of our spirits, continues to live at 
Ca.prera, where he is Garibaldi's guardian ; and he seldom 
comes to see us, though he is very kind to my little girl and 
to us all. I told you of the death of a little rabbit which he 
brought her as a present from that island. He promised her 
something else, and w^e had forgotten it. The other day as 
we were at dinner she said, " There is somebody crying in 
this room." I am deaf and heard nothing. The Nun said, 
" C^ 7uia voce giu." * I supposed it was some noise in the 
street. " No, it is here." I gave Bibi a pen, and she was 
made to write, " Open the door of the camerino " ; which she 
did, and came running and screaming to us, " Oh ce una 
bcstia";^ followed by a big lamb, almost a sheep, jumping 
and bleating. Dante, assisted by another, had brought it 
from Santa Rosora near Pisa, where it had been lost in a 
wood ; the peasants would have eaten it. And here it has 
been ever since, and follows B[ibi] like a dog. I had been 
in the camerino five minutes before, and was never out of 
sight of the door. The window was fastened, but they had 
opened it. . . . — Always 3'ours sincerely, 

Seymour Kirkup. 



187. — Bertrand Payne to William Rossettl 

44 Dover Street, Piccadilly. 
28 April 1868. 

Dear Sir, — I have read your emendations of the text of 
Shelley in N\otes\ mid Q\ueries\ with equal pleasure and 
profit. Would it please you to edit for me another and 

■* There is a voice here. t Oh there is an animal. 



BARONE KIRKUP, 1868 353 

better form of that poet's works than has yet been attempted ? 
And, if you would preface such an edition of the poet's 
remains with a brief memoir, I think I could interest most 
who have any of Shelley's important papers to confide them 
to you. — Yours very truly, 

J. Bertrand Payne. 



1 88. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossettl 

[The portrait of my Father first mentioned must be a 
photograph from my Brother's oil-likeness of him, 1848. 
Then "the little photo of him" is the one of 1853, also by 
my Brother, reproduced in the Memoir of the latter that 
I published in 1895. Liverati's head may have been fairly 
like my Father towards the age (as would appear) of forty. 
The two Italian sentences run thus : — (i) " It must eat bran, 
salad, and meadow-grass, bread and milk — Adieu." (2) 
" Conte : I have brought you a thing into the small room — 
something that I promised you." — Towards the end of the 
letter comes a reference to a matter which formed the London 
town-talk in those days — an action against the Medium Home 
to recover a large sum of money given to him by a lady, Mrs 
Lyon.] 

Florence, 2 Ponte Vecchio. 
18 May 1868. 

My dear Rossetti, — Many thanks indeed for your dear 
Father's portrait. ... I have your Brother's little photo of 
him, which is a charming little sort of Albert Durer's style, 
a gem for execution, and I dare say very faithful. Liverati's 
is too dashing to trust for correctness ; but it comes nearest 
to your own description o{ energy and vivacious good- humour ; 
in which you agree with my friend John Leader, who is 
living here, married to an Italian lady. . . . 

You ask about the story of the lamb's journey from Santa 
Rosora. I did not hear its voice, from deafness. Bibi and 
the Nun did. Here is what is written in my journal : " I 

Z 



354 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

told Bibi to take a pen (she is a writing medium, and her 
hand was quickly convulsed), and I asked ' Who is it ? ' — and 
she wrote ' Dante ; open the camerino.' Bibi went and 
opened it, etc. He made her write ; ' Deve mangiare crusca, 
insalata, e crba di prato, pane e latte ; addio! I then made 
her sleep, and he told her that he had brought it in three 
minutes from a bosco at Rosora near Pisa, assisted by 
Cesarino (another spirit) : asleep, having been magnetized by 
them." ... A few minutes before the bleat was heard I 
had been in the small camerino, and saw the window shut, 
and had not been out of sight of the door (the only one) for 
a single moment. I think I told you that the lamb, after 
being with us two weeks, was taken away out of another 
window — because we could not get the proper grass, and it 
would have died. They then promised to give Bibi some- 
thing else ; and we heard no more till eighteen days after, 
when, at supper, the table began to bounce and jump 
violently. I enquired if Regina, Dante, etc., were there. Yes, 
no less than eight of them. " Shall Bibi sleep ? " (to tell me 
what they wanted).—" No."—" Shall she write ? "— " Yes "— 
and she wrote : — " Conte : Ti ho portato una cosa nel cajncnno, 
una cosa cJie t'ho projnessa!' (I thought it was Dante who 
had promised her something.) She took a candle and peeped 
in, and came back frightened at something black. I went in 
and found a pretty black puppy, and took him up and 
brought him in. "What is his name?" — She wrote a 
word I could not make out, nor she either. It seemed /i?// — 
I asked what he meant ; and he wrote gioli, and then I found 
out that it was joli. The Count who signed himself at the 
beginning is Count Ladislas Ginnasi, a dear friend of ours 
who was very fond of Bibi. He died four years ago, and is 
one of our eight habitues; but is mostly with Dante at 
Caprera, and so is Giovanni, another of our friends. The 
other five are always here and never fail. It is really a little 
society of its kind. Last night they were all eight, and 
very merry with the puppy. I asked the Count where the 
dog came from : from Faenza, his native city. . . . 

The spirits first came in 1854, and I have kept a journal 



W. D. O'CONNOR, 1868 355 

ever since, now in 7 volumes, and much omitted. Writing 
and sleeping mediums are not to be depended on. 

Home has behaved very ill, I suspect he has been 
prompted by intriguing lawyers. He was an honourable 
man when I knew him thirteen years ago, but weak and 
ignorant. I was really glad when I heard of his good 
fortune, but he appears to have abused it. I have not 
seen any report of the trial, and I have asked Mrs Parks 
to send me The Times. He will be reckoned an impostor 
by the Judge if he is not a spiritualist, and that will tell 
against him. But I am afraid it is a bad case anyhow. I 
hear that he is accused of terrible lies and ingratitude. The 
sentence is not yet given. 

Count Ginnasi was a remarkably handsome Romagnolo, 
and cousin of Byron's Count Gamba and Madame Guiccioli, 
. . . My little daughter is now fourteen. . . . Our chief 
spirit is Bibi's Mother, Regina. She died of consumption 
at nineteen. It all began with her in her lifetime, and has 
continued ever since. I believe she lives here for Bibi's 
sake. . . . — Ever yours sincerely, 

Seymour Kirkup. 



189. — W. D. O'Connor to William Rossettl 

[I am not aware whether the utterance ascribed to 
Carlyle in the newspaper-paragraph was really his or not] 

Washington. 
20 May 1868. 

My dear Mr Rossettl, — You will have got TJie Tribune, 
containing Mr George W. Smalley's malignant paragraph on 
Mr Whitman ; and I enclose an item from The Star of 
this city, as a sample of the numerous injurious squibs 
which it has set afloat. 

Is it possible that Mr Carlyle has said the things 
Smalley reports? I can hardly believe it. Do you know? 



356 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

If he has, there has been a change, for years ago his opinion 
of Leaves of Grass was very high, ... At all events, Mr 
Carlyle's name carries so much weight in this country that 
the attack is Hkely to be mischievous. The enemy feel 
re-enforced by such an authority, and are preparing for a 
general onset. The article in The Saturday Reviezu has 
already been reprinted here in full. . . . 

I have seen the Athencsuni notice. It is fine, and has 
superb sentences. 

I hope your enterprise prospers. Save for the ill wind 
of The Saturday Review, the notices have been more than 
one could have hoped for. . . . — Your very faithful 

W. D. O'Connor. 

Carlyle on VVJiitinan. — A correspondent of a New York 
paper says that Carlyle likens Walt Whitman to a " buffalo, 
useful in fertilizing the soil, but mistaken in supposing that 
his contributions of that sort are matters which the world 
desires to contemplate closely." The admirers of Whitman 
in this country will hardly relish the characterization of 
the productions of " the good grey poet " as buffalo-chips. 



190. — W. D. O'Connor — On Leaves of Grass. 

[I print something like a half of this writing. It reached 
me — possibly through Mr Conway — as a Preface, proposed 
by Mr O'Connor, for my Selection from Whitman's Poems : 
or indeed (according to the author's project) for a complete 
re-edition of the poems. It did not however suit my plan 
to make any use of the writing. I do not know who was the 
" English gentleman and traveller " mentioned towards the 
close of the extract] 

Lntroduction to the London Edition. 

America — that new world in so many respects besides its 
geography — has afforded nothing, even in the astonishing 



W. D. O'CONNOR, 1868 357 

products of the fields of its politics, its mechanical inventions, 
material growths, and the like, more original, more autoch- 
thonic, than its late contribution in the field of literature, the 
Poem, or poetic writings, named Leaves of Grass. . . . 

Taken as a unity, Leaves of Grass, true to its American 
origin, is a song of " the great pride of man in himself" It 
assumes to bring the materials and outline the architecture 
of a more complete, more advanced, idiocratic, masterful. 
Western personality — the combination and model of a new 
Man. ... It possesses, more than any other book we know, 
the magnetism of living flesh and blood, sitting near the 
reader and looking and talking. . . . 

If indeed the various parts of Leaves of Grass demanded 
a single word to sum up and characterize them, it would 
seem to be the word Democracy. But it would mean a 
Democracy not confined to politics ; that would describe a 
portion only. It would need the application of the word to 
be extended to all departments of civilization and human- 
ity 

We will add to the hasty synopsis of Leaves of Grass just 
given a brief memorandum of the author, Walt Whitman. 
He was born on his Father's farm, not far from the sea, in 
New York State, 31 May 18 19. His descent is from Dutch 
and English ancestry, dating back, in both Father and Mother's 
lines, to the first colonization of that part of the country ; and 
is thus of the fullest and purest stock that America affords, 
grown of her own soil. He grew up large and strong, 
alternating his life equally between the country-farm and 
New York City. He has since lived in the South, explored 
the West, and sailed the Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico, 
and the great Canadian Lakes, He has been a farmer, 
builder of houses, and printer and editor of newspapers. 
He first issued Leaves of Grass in 1855. The book has 
since been printed, with successive enlargements and re- 
adjustments, three times. As given in this volume, it was 
put forth by the author within the last year, and includes 
the poems and songs of Drum-Taps, written during and at 
the close of the late Civil War. 



358 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

For Walt Whitman was in the midst of the war through- 
out, A volunteer caretaker of the wounded and sick, he 
joined the army early in the contest, and steadily remained, 
as an amateur but at active work, in camp, on the battle- 
field, or in some of the huge military hospitals, ministering 
to Southerners as well as Northerners ; not only till Richmond 
fell and Lee capitulated, but, as we hear, continues to this 
day still regularly visiting the collections of maimed and 
broken-down men, the sad legacy bequeathed by the long 
campaigns and sanguinary battles of those vast armies. 

He is now in his forty-ninth year, and is portrayed by 
one who knows him intimately as tall in stature ; with 
shapely limbs ; slow of movement ; florid and clear face ; 
bearded and grey ; blue eyes ; an expression of great equa- 
nimity ; a decided presence and singular personal mag- 
netism ; very little of a talker ; always compassionate ; 
generally undemonstrative ; yet capable of the strongest 
emotions, resolution, and hmiteur. 

An English gentleman and traveller, a believing reader of 
Walt Whitman, who sought him out in America, gives the 
latest direct account of the poet. He found him, in August 
1867, residing at Washington, the capital of the United States, 
where he was holding a small but pleasant and honourable 
post in the office of the Attorney-General. He had several 
interviews with him ; and, besides confirming the main parts 
of the foregoing account, he adds one thing more, with which 
we may conclude our record. It is a point that has the final 
bearing on human character. He considers Walt Whitman 
the most thoroughly religious being that, in the course of 
much travel and long and varied contact with the world, 
he has ever encountered. The interior and foundation 
quality of the man is Hebraic, biblical, mystic. This quality 
undoubtedly, — exhibited and fused through a full and 
passionate physiology, a complete animal body, and joined 
with the most thorough realization and cordial acceptance 
of his country and belief in its mission, the fullest sense of 
the sacred practical obligations of each person as citizen, 
neighbour, and friend, and the most deferential absorption of 



STAUROS DILBEROGLUE, 1868 359 

modern science ; yet with the distinct acknowledgment that 
science, grand as it is, stands at last utterly baffled before 
the impenetrable miracle of the least law of the universe, 
and even the least leaf or insect ; — this, we say, undoubtedly 
gives the best clue both to the personal character and life 
and to the poetic utterance of this new, powerful, and (we 
think we must say) most typical American. 



191. — Stauros Dilberoglue to William Rossettl 

31 Threadneedle Street. 
27 May 1868. 

Dear Mr Rossetti, — Stillman still hopes, and some of our 
best friends here think, that it is not yet desperate : I am 
longing, but doubtful. . . . 

I wish I was coming with you as far as Venice. ... Be 
with Venetians if you can. You will understand them, 
and they will understand you. People of the South, or with 
southern blood, understand each other so well ; and see 
precisely and hear precisely what each has to say and make 
the other see, which is a rare blessing in life. Britons 
generally use epithets for characterizing foreigners, but that 
is dos/i ; no adjective can characterize any complex-natured 
soul. And the Southerners are that, because they have, 
thank God, as yet, no principles. They are guided by their 
nerves, their stomach, and their livers, and they are as 
various as the English climate. They are tempera/zw, and 
of course most charming companions ; and then they have 
a kind of logic that astonishes one with its simplicity and 
boldness ; they reason like great children to the extremest 
limits of their thoughts, whatever they may be, . , . — I am, 
in affectionate esteem, yours, 

Stauros Dilberoglue, 



360 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



ig2:—C. p. Maenza to Dante Rossetti. 

[The writer is mentioned in my Diary (No. 175) p. 322. 
The end of the present letter has been lost] 

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, I9 RUE SiMONEAU. 

i-i^July 1868. 

My dear Gabriel, — I have punctually received the other 
two half-notes ; as to the rest, make it convenient to yourself 
What we feel of gratitude, we cannot sufficiently express it. 

Read attentively the following lines. Seven years ago, 
when you so kindly tried to make up i^200, the sum then 
necessary to enable us to go to Italy, we could only reach 
;^I54. Certainly it was a considerable sum of money; but 
not what I considered necessary to clear myself from Boulogne, 
and risk, with Mrs Maenza, when in Italy to find ourselves in 
a critical position, having received positive information that 
the Italian Government could not afford but scanty assistance 
for past services. . . . 

Age, fatigue, and anxiety for the future, have made me 
unfit for that daily work which teaching requires ; my strength 
is gone, and a troublesome cough torments me terribly. . . . 

It has given us a very great pleasure to find that your 
position as an artist is firmly established. I never doubted 
of your success since you were a boy ; who could have been 
blind to it? Only I was afraid you would not take it up 
seriously. ... 



i93._C. P. Maenza to Dante Rossetti. 

[The P.S. here speaks of " your estimable friend," and also 
of Mr Ruskin. My impression is that the " friend " was Mr 
Howell ; who may have been acting in concert with Mr 
Ruskin, or probably on his own account] 



OLIVER BROWN, 1868 361 

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, 19 RUE SiMONEAU. 

^djuly 1868. 

My dearest Gabriel, — I am at a loss to know what to 
write ; how can we express to you what are our feelings ? 
Your letter is what a most affectionate son would have sent 
to his parents ; and more than that, since you wish to under- 
take a charge which passes all imagination. Are we author- 
ized to accept such a sacrifice on your part? We hesitate 
(but we trust confidently in your affection) to consider the 
acceptance of your most generous offer, for being absolutely 
invalidated by a worn-out health. The sum you propose is 
more than sufficient ; our wants are small, and we could make 
ourselves perfectly happ)'. Only I should like to facilitate 
you as much as it is in my power, in raising up the ;^ioo 
with some of my works, or by trying in getting some old 
little paintings that chances might bring in my way, and 
send them to you in England. . , . 

Now, my dear Gabriel, your communication about your 
health will remain strictly confidential ; but it has caused us 
a very great affliction ; not for interest sake, but because we 
have found in you the most generous and most affectionate 
friend we could ever meet in the world. . . . — Yours very 
truly, 

C. P. Maenza. 

P.S. — Will you express to your estimable friend our 
sincere gratitude for his kind and unassuming generosity ; 
we are overpowered by so much consideration and friendly 
interference. Pray, if you have an opportunity to see Mr 
Ruskin, give him my kindest regards, and assure him of my 
grateful remembrance of his generosity. 



194. — Oliver Brown to Emma Brown, Yarmouth. 

[" My Jason picture " is a water-colour of The Centaur 
Chiron receivi?tg the hifant Jason from the Slave : it was 
exhibited at the Dudley Gallery in 1869, ^^""^ I now possess 



362 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

a smaller duplicate of it. I have no recollection of the design 
of Drowned Men's Ghosts. — Cath}' (Mrs Hueffer) was only 
a little older than Oliver, who was born in January 1855.] 

2,7 FiTZROY Square. 
26 July 1868. 

My dear Mamma, — ... I have begun painting my 
Jason picture ; the colour has not come good at present, 
but I suppose it may come better when I get more of it 
in. I have been also making some slight sketches, one 
of which I believe }'OU saw ; the other one is of two men 
rowing across a river, and meeting the ghosts of the people 
who have been drowned in it walking in a procession. . . . Has 
Cathy been doing any drawings of you ? Please give her 
my love, and believe me your very affectionate Son, 

Oliver Madox Brown. 



195. — James Smetham to Dante Rossetti. 

[This information regarding the Taylor family will have 
been interesting to Rossetti, on the ground of the sincere 
admiration which he entertained for certain biblical designs 
made by Isaac Taylor Junior. These designs were published 
in 1834 as One hundred Copperplate Engravings to ornament 
Editions of the Bible. Rossetti, in the supplementary chapter 
which he wrote to Gilchrist's Life of Blake^ speaks of the 
series as " seldom equalled for imaginative impression." Mr 
Smetham appears to say that this Isaac Taylor Junior was 
the same person as the Author of TJie Natural History of 
Entlmsiasni^ etc. This viay be correct, but I am not sure 
of it] 

I Park. Lane, Stoke Newington. 
12 August 1868. 

My dear Gabriel, — . . . The two youngest boys and 
myself spent a fortnight near Ongar. Heard a good deal 



ADDINGTON SYMONDS, 1868 363 

about Isaac Taj'lor. The Father was a very fine engraver 
— engraved Stothard's Henry ]"III. and Anne Boleyn, and 
Opie's DeatJi of Ri.zzio, for Boydell's Gallery. At South 
Kensington Portrait - Gallery there were oil - portraits of 
Jane Taylor and Anne Taylor by him — little Isaac as a 
baby in the distance rolling on the grass. The picture 
vcr)-- well done. Saw the Son of Anne Taylor, who is an 
artist (Crayon-heads 3 inches long — price 10 guineas, etc.), 
but has a competence and no children. His name is 
Gilbert. He has written a book of Travels hi the Dolomite 
Mountains, said to be pleasant. He is writing about Titian. 
The Dolomite Mountains are near Cadore, and he has lots 
of rough water-colours of the mountain-lines, showing the 
Titian crests, flame-like. I find that it was Isaac Taylor 
Junior, the author, who did the designs you have. He 
also invented the common BEER-TAP, and another reaped 
the harvest of profit. — Affectionately yours, 

Jas. Smetiiam. 



196. — Addington Symond.s to William Rossetti. 

[Mr Symonds (whom I had never the good fortune to 
know personally) was right in inferring that the two poems 
by Whitman first mentioned by him were omitted from my 
selection simply on the ground that they could not well go 
in without the cancelling of some phrases. As to the other 
poem from Calanins, I cannot now say anything distinct] 

Clifton Hill House, near Bristol. 
15 August 1868. 
Sir, — May I be permitted, as a sincere admirer of Walt 
Whitman, to express to you my thanks for your edition of 
his select works — one of the most valuable of your many 
valuable contributions to our literature ? 

I should hardly have ventured thus to address you, had 
the readers and admirers of Whitman been a large body in 



364 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

England. But, as it is, there are so few who are able to 
understand his excellences, so many who are irritated into 
a kind of madness by his w^ant of taste in details, that I 
feel justified in expressing to you my sympathy with all that 
you have said in your preface, and my admiration of the 
taste and judgment of your selection. 

Might I ask you on what account you have omitted Sleep- 
Chasings and A Leaf of Faces from your volume? I 
have always regarded these as among Whitman's most 
characteristic pieces. Is it because you would not submit 
them to the necessary purgation for English readers ? I 
remember that one passage in the latter poem moved 
Tennyson's wrath in particular when he first came across 
Leaves of Grass. I should also have liked to see the poem 
of Calamus (old edition), " Long I thought that knowledge 
alone would suffice me," in your collection — the more so 
perhaps because it has been omitted in the last edition by 
Mr Whitman himself Do you happen to know what 
induced him to suppress it? . . . — Your obedient servant, 

John AddinCxTon Symonds, Junior. 



197. — Addington Symonds to William Rossettl 

Clifton Hill House, near Bristol. 
19 August 1868. 

My dear Sir, — . . . Do you think that the poems of 
Whitman might be put into a juster light by any essay- 
writing about them ? I have long contemplated making 
a literary study of his works ; and, if (as I conjecture) no 
review would take a fair and dispassionate critique, have 
thought of publishing a more minute one separately. The 
experience of many years' writing for journals etc. makes me 
feel the difficulty of such an undertaking in the case of a 
writer like Walt Whitman, who, to use his own phrase, has 
a singular faculty of " eluding " analysis. But I should like 



ADDINGTON SYMONDS, 1868 365 

to attempt the work if better judges than myself were of 
opinion that a sufficient number of people are superficially 
interested in Whitman to make an audience. . . . 

I think the reprint of the Prose Preface to Leaves of Grass 
one of the best and most useful points about your edition. 
Last year I was going to have that preface reprinted for dis- 
tribution among a few friends. . . . — Yours very truly, 

J. A. Symonds. 



198. — Addington Symonds to William Rossettl 

Clifton Hill House, near Bristol. 
25 August 1868. 

My dear Sir, — At the risk of troubling you with another 
letter, I cannot refrain from writing to thank you for the 
kindness of your second answer, and to explain what I 
meant by a "literary study" of Walt Whitman, I was 
thinking of an analytical and critical enquiry into the 
nature of his poetry, and his position as a pioneer — as 
well as a discussion of the different subjects of his writings, 
and some account of his life. This would imply a con- 
sideration of his peculiar views about Democracy, Love, Art, 
Religion ; and would lead one far, I fear, beyond the limits 
of a magazine-article. What you and Buchanan have 
done has rendered it, I think, unnecessary to attempt the 
publication of another brief general survey. But, if there 
were a chance of getting a purely critical article into Eraser 
or one of the Quarterlies, I should like to write a section 
of the work which I have just sketched in outline upon 
Whitman's claims to be considered a great poet. I should 
then dismiss all polemical, biographical, ethical (and so on) 
discussion, and should confine myself to pointing out the 
strength and beauty of his work, the range and drift of his 
art, illustrating my remarks by copious quotations. 

I know Burroughs' book. . . . 



366 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

I am surprised to hear what you tell me about Whit- 
man's unpopularity in America. It is partly, I suppose, the 
prophet's old want of honour in his own country. Besides, 
the Americans, when refined, are apt to be absurdly over- 
refined. They are like parvenus, who are always more 
afraid of being vulgar than people of acknowledged position. 
I should not wonder if Whitman were in the end more 
tolerantly and tranquilly received in England than he can 
be in his own country. Then the appreciation of him on 
this side of the Atlantic will be reflected on the other, 
and the Americans will be ashamed of not being proud of 
their apostle. , . . — Yours very faithfully, 

John Addington Symonds. 



199. — Barone KiRKur to William Rossetti. 

[Charles Brown \vas the friend of Keats rather than of 
Shelley ; whether he really knew Shelley I should rather 
doubt. This statement as to the manner of his death 
seems to me new.] 

Leghorn. 
31 Atigust 1868. 

My dear Rossetti, — ... I remember a tobacconist's shop 
in the country with a signboard on which were painted three 
appropriate faces with this poetical motto — 

We three are engaged in the same cause ; 
I smokes, I snufifs, and I chaws. 

Poor De Batines the Philodantist died here of cigars : he was 
young. And Charles Brown, the friend of Shelley and 
Trelawny, died of snuff, after several fits, . . . — Yours truly, 

Seymour Kirkup. 



BARONE KIRKUP, 1868 367 



200. — Baron E Kikkup to William Rossetti. 

[The opening of this letter refers to my proposal to 
dedicate to Barone Kirkup (which I did) my little Essay 
on Italian Courtesy-books. Some of the books which he 
mentions as authorities go on to a date more recent than 
I dealt with. — The statement that Tasso was a medium will 
surprise some readers ; it is however a fact that certain 
things recorded of Tasso by himself and others do bear a 
close affinity to some aspects of modern spiritualism.] 

Florence, 2 Ponte Vecchio. 
18 September 1868. 

My dear Friend, — I found your letter here on my arrival 
from Leghorn. There is nothing of which I shall be prouder 
than the honour of having my name connected with any of 
your works ; and the subject of this is most interesting to 
an antiquarian. I have always had a leaning that way, and 
you have a great list of authorities. You will find much in 
the Novellieri, from Sacchetti to Bandello, Giraldi, and 
Malespini, and in the Ragionamenti of P[ietro] Aretino. I 
have seen a small book containing three Galateos — those of 
Monsignor Delia Casa, Gioia, and another. Very likely you 
have got it. If not, shall I seek for it ? Bandello's introduc- 
tions to his Novelle are especially good for costume ; and, if 
you have time, you will find much in the old Comedias of 
the 500. I never read the three Galateos. . . . Pietro 
Aretino gives us much knowledge of the customs of Rome in 
his Ragionamenti. They are dialogues between a rich 
courtezan and her friend, a bawd, whom she consults about 
the bringing-out of her daughter ; and has the choice of 
three conditions, a nun's, a wife's, or a courtezan's, all which 
she herself had experienced, and relates to her friend. 
They decide on the last, and it ends with a long conversa- 
tion of instructions to the daughter. . . . Another book of 
his is a dialogue on Cards, in which some excellent stories 



368 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

of gamesters are introduced. I sent some of them lately to 
R. Browning, who is writing a poem relating to Arezzo in 
which gambling will make a great figure. I have written to 
B[rowning], through whom I lent to Mr John Forster all my 
letters, odes, scraps, conversations, etc., of W. S. Landor, 
whose life he was going to write. . . . 

The great authority for Italian courtesy will always be 
letters — Machiavelli, Aretino, Varchi, Tasso, etc. I trans- 
lated some of the latter, proving that he was a medium 
and not a madman, and sent them to TJie Spiritual Magazine 
about five or six years ago. ... It was not till time of 
the court of the Medici that exaggerated adulation and 
servility became the fashion, and titles became common in 
Florence. . . . — Always yours sincerely, 

Seymour Kirkup. 



20!. — Sir Frederick Burton to Dante Rossetti. 

[My Brother must have written about his eyesight to 
Sir Frederick Burton, knowing the latter to have had a 
good deal of trouble in the same way. — " The transcribed 
poem " was probably one of those written by Dr Garth 
Wilkinson under supposed spiritual influence.] 

CoMRAGH House, Kilmacthomas, Ireland. 
20 September 1868. 

My dear Rossetti, — ... I felt, and now still more 
strongly feel, convinced that the condition of your eye- 
sight is mainly, if not entirely, owing to your general 
state of health — of which both it and your want of sleep 
are but symptoms. But, whatever the former may more 
mediately depend upon, the latter is alone sufficient to 
account for it. I know some, and know of many, persons 
who, being afflicted with sleeplessness, have found either 
benefit or cure by going to the seaside. There is some- 
thing in the sea-air which induces sleep ; and, in a case 



SIR FREDERICK BURTON, 1868 369 

where great unrest and wakefulness have become habitual, 
I believe it is all-important to get into the habit of sleeping 
for even a short time, — when the spell seems to become 
broken, and the natural rest returns. I wish you would 
try it ; and indeed, if you go down to Penkill, I should 
think (from the description I have had of its position) you 
would be sufficiently near the sea to benefit by it. 

I do not doubt that writing to Bonders would be of 
use. But I am so much convinced that rest of all kinds, 
including abstention from work, is what you chiefly require, 
that I should hardly think you could do better than try 
to obtain it — and in doing so await Bowman's return. 
Perhaps by that time you will not urgently need his advice. 
But I would certainly have it under all circumstances. I 
should imagine that your whole nervous system is deranged 
and overwrought ; and that the ophthalmic nerve, which 
indeed becomes the retina, is — very naturally in your case 
— peculiarly affected ; and that this reacts upon the whole 
nervous system, and so a constant current of excitement is 
kept up. If you can save the retina from lesion by timely 
rest, I am sure you will have done the most that is 
required. 

Thanks, a great many, for the transcribed poem. It 
is very remarkable, and the result of a truly imaginative 
mind — containing the real poetic element. But I do not 
see that it is especially spiritualistic in itself, though its 
singer may be a spiritualist. 

I am glad you have read Vathek — only surprised it never 
came across you before. Since my boyhood I know it — and 
read it again a few years ago with undiminished delight. 
It has a quality of imaginativeness surpassing, I think, most 
of what one finds in The Arabian Nights — as indeed one 
might perhaps not unnaturally expect from a highly poetic 
European mind, using with consummate command oriental 
imagery. , . . 

I am ashamed to say I have never read Wuthering 
Heights. ... I will certainly read it soon, more incited 
thereto by what you say. . . . 

2 A 



370 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Ever yours, dear Rossetti, most heartily and with best 

wishes, 

Frederick W. Burton. 



202. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

Penkill. 
7 October i868. 

My dear Brown, — I had better answer your enquiries 
to Scott myself. I am still very queer in the eyes, in spite of 
vastly improved sleep. I lately received a note of enquiry 
from Bader the oculist, and wrote him my latest symptoms, 
some of which I think very nasty ones. However, he 
still writes expressing the most unlimited confidence in my 
complete recovery. So let us hope for the best. 

Miss Boyd says — won't you come down? Now do. We 
should be as jolly as is possible in my queer state, and I 
dare say I should be helped to forget it. There is a splendid 
studio here, so you could bring any work you pleased with 
you. Miss Boyd is the most indulgent of hostesses, and 
you would do precisely as you pleased. Scott's pictures are 
finished, and well worth a visit if there were no other attrac- 
tion. But the scenery here is simply paradise within the 
grounds of the castle — all private, and every opportunity 
of painting landscape if you felt inspired. The glen belong- 
ing to the castle is, I think, the most lovely spot I was ever 
in. All kinds of joy and mystery in all its corners — immense 
variety of background-material for any conceivable outdoor 
subject. There is one spot which even I should be moved 
to set to work on if my eyes were in order. The extreme 
quiet and beauty of the place could not but prove invaluable 
to you. 

Now do come at once. It ought to be at once, as the 
trees are beginning — though only just beginning — to thin 
very materially. The weather here has been splendid, instead 



BARONE KIRKUP, 1868 371 

of the nuisances I hear you have suffered from in London — 
and seems likely to remain so at present. . . . 

Perhaps you have seen some of my letters to others, and 
know that I spent a couple of hours in the Leeds Exhibition 
in coming out here. For this, of course, I had to pass the 
first night at Leeds. The Old Masters are intensely inter- 
esting in many cases, but the place is now a bear-garden 
of Yorkshire excursionists. It will be open till 26th October. 
Two of yours — Last of England and Jacob — were extremely 
well hung and looked very fine. The Work is seen to 
disadvantage ; and the Cordelia not as it ought to be, but 
still pretty well. — With love to all, your affectionate 

Gabriel. 



203. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossettl 

Florence, 2 Ponte Vecchio. 
20 November 1868. 

My dear Friend, — You are quite right — Europe ought to 
rejoice at the Spanish Revolution. But they are hindered 
by those cursed French from making it a Republic ; and, if 
they are forced to call-in another dynasty, it will return to 
the whole craft, priestcraft included, for priests and kings are 
always allies. . . . 

Here they are building new royal stables that will cost 
more than the President of America is paid in six years; 
and only lately they were talking of bankruptcy, and are not 
quite sure about it still ; and Codini raise the usual hue and 
cry, against Garibaldi and Mazzini, of Atheists and Robc- 
spierrists. 

I fear the Spaniards will not be able to come well out of 
their difficulties. . . . 

The Life of Tasso by Manso is the best and truest, and 
not written in a D'Este court (like that of Serassi) to please 
the Duke of Modena. Only it is not written by Manso, but 



372 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

by Fiamma. I found that out, and it is confirmed by Gamba 
{Testi di Lingua). Manso was the author of the anecdotes 
at the end, which caused the mistake. See, in the Life, the 
letter written by Manso to the High Admiral of Naples. It 
is one of Tasso's visions, the more trustworthy as Manso was 
incredulous, . . . — Yours very sincerely, 

Seymour Kirkup. 



204. — William Bell Scott to William Rossetti. 

[The leaf of Shelley's Revolt of Islam with which Scott 
presented me is most indisputably in the poet's own hand- 
writing. Scott had received it, I think, from Mr Lewes many 
years before. It is now in the collection of autographs 
formed by my daughter Helen.] 

[33 Elgin Road, London.] 
30 Noveviher 1868, 

Dear W., — Here is the leaf of TJie Revolt of Islam — in 
Shelley's own hand (?)... 

Don't you think Gabriel's beginning to take an interest 
in his poetry a very good thing ? At Penkill we had most 
serious talks about the chances of his powers of painting — 
a matter on which I may write or speak to none but you. 
I tried by every means to make him revive his poetry, but 
apparently without effect. Now, however, he is really doing 
so. Of course one trusts the defective sight is only tem- 
porary ; still one must not forget that his eyes have not been 
strong for some time. — Yours ever, 

W. B. SCOTT. 



WILLIAM BELL SCOTT, 1868 373 



205. — William Bell Scott to William Rossettl 

33 Elgin Road. 
2 December [1868.] 

Dearest W., — Most welcome to the leaf of Shelley — 
keep it altogether if you like. . . . 

I asked Lewes about Harriet and the life she led ; he 
having in the old time had the intention, which it appears 
was set aside by the Shelley family, of writing memoirs. 
He says she first was taken up by a man, and, when 
abandoned by him, she took to any one. One would say 
it is just the same in effect as being on the street, as far 
as he learned from Leigh Hunt and others ; but that she 
was not in a brothel, I suppose. He exonerates Shelley, 
but that can only be done by supposing him weak and 
little perceptive. To suppose him so egotistical that he 
did not think of her at all is not to exonerate him. Lewes 
says he believes he could bring you in contact with Mrs 
Hogg, widow of the biographer (formerly Mrs Williams, 
who was with Shelley at the last), a vivid old woman, who 
remembers much of Shelley, — if you care. If you do, write 
either him or me, and say so ; to write him would be the 
shortest He says he thinks he knows you. His address 
is — The Priory, North Road, Grove Road, near Regent's 
Park. 

About Gabriel — the short ending to his ills, in the 
worst case, was of course often spoken of by him. But 
we must not think of the possibility of that, even under 
the dire misfortune. I could not strongly dissuade him, 
but I feel that it must not be thought of But he is 
poet as well as painter, and was a poet before he was a 
painter ; and even in the interval of rest — we must acknow- 
ledge to the disturbance of his sight, even to outsiders — 
it would be a great thing to get him to be the poet again, 
I wonder his spirits don't break down, doing nothing so 
long. — Ever yours, 

W. B. SCOTT. 



374 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



206. — William Allingham to William Rossettl 

Lymington. 
4 December 1868. 

Dear William, — I congratulate you on the Shelley under- 
taking, and am glad it is in such excellent hands. As to 
myself, I love Shelley no less ; but from the critical study of 
his poetry I have drifted away, and have, I think, no avail- 
able notes. . . . 

I know Sir Percy Shelley. ... I have met Shelley's two 
sisters at dinner (I mean the Poet's — "Bysshe" as they 
always call him) — one of them curiously like him, and most 
ready to talk of him. I will write you again by and by. 

Of course you do not expect to find every flourish and 

fantasy of Shelley's rhyme reducible to logical prose. In 

any case he loved to tread on the confines of the expressible. 

He wrote a vile hand * — seldom corrected proofs himself — 

and left much in fragmentary and chaotic condition. . . . — 

Yours, believe me, 

W. A. 



207. — William Allingham to William Rossettl 

Lymington. 
18 December 1868. 

Dear William, — . . .lanthe (S[helley]'s daughter by his 
first marriage) is now Mrs Esdaile, and is living at or near 
Cheltenham — or was lately. His two sisters whom I met 
are Hellen and Margaret : Elizabeth is dead. 

I called again on Sir Percy and Lady Shelley after receiv- 
ing your first letter, and spent last Saturday to Monday with 
them at Wood Vale, Cowes, where they have taken a house 

* I do not agree in this. Shelley could \s\\K.^ a very good hand when 
he liked — and often he did like. 



WILLIAM ALLINGHAM, 1868 375 

for a year. Their own place is Boscombe, near Christchurch. 
The Shelley relics (MSS. etc.) are at present in a banker's 
safe. Field Place is Sir Percy's, but now let to a Gas- 
Engineer. It has a new colonnade, but is otherwise little 
altered. 

As to the question of revision and correction, I found the 
Shelleys cautious in giving any opinion — and opposed to 
conjectural emendations. I think they would possibly (with 
luck and opportunity helping) be induced to allow an exa- 
mination of the MSS., which it seems are no joke to 
decipher. 

As to the Life^ there is no new material attainable at 
present. One could only make a narrative out of the six or 
eight Shelley-books we have. 

Special commentary on obscure points of a delicate 
nature would, in my opinion, be extremely undesirable, and 
under the circumstances very useless, — would give great 
pain to worthy living people, and could show no sufficient 
authority. Hogg, for instance (as Lady Shelley assured 
me), not only jumbled dates, but altered the wording of 
letters. Whatever be the case as to facts, one may well 
consent to be reticent of surmises — especially painful ones. 
. . , Shelley's sexual feeling was always and inseparably 
mingled up with intellectual and moral enthusiasm. I most 
strongly counsel you to avoid guesses in the dark. . . . — 
Very truly yours, 

W. Allingham. 

I have received The Cenci, which I'll return ; and my 
opinion as to the Thou's and Yo2i's is distinctly that you 
should let them " bide as they be " (as folk say here) : I 
mean, as Shelley put 'em. They are mixed quite in the 
manner of the Elizabethan Dramatists, of whom S[helley] 
was so full while writing The Cenci, and whose ideas, and 
phrases even, crop up not seldom in the modern dramatist's 
performance. 



376 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



208.— William Rossetti to William Allingham. 

56 EusTON Square. 

20 Dece7nber [1868]. 

Dear Allingham, — . . . About Shelley ... I think you 
must have rather misapprehended my point of view. I 
never proposed to be other than " reticent of surmises, 
especially painful ones," or to indulge in " guesses in the 
dark." What I said (if I remember the phrase in my 
former note) was that, if I acquired the certainty or convic- 
tion (of course based on evidence) that so-and-so was true, 
I should think the proper office of a biographer would be 
to say as much. . . . Thus much to clear away any mis- 
apprehension : but perhaps we still differ somewhat about 
the essentials. For myself, I think that to give the world 
a correct idea of the character of so great a man as Shelley 
is — if the two things clash — an object of greater moment 
than the feelings of worthy living persons : and Shelley, 
who scarcely wrote a page which would not, or which was 
not intended to, ruffle some worthy living persons, would 
I apprehend be the last man to uphold a contrary view. 

As for Swinburne, I shall certainly show him my text 
and notes when occasion offers : opining that nobody is 
better qualified to keep me in the right on these points. 
If my deliberate opinion differs from his on any point, I 
shall stick to my own. About the Life, it may or may not 
happen that he sees it before publication, — and will make 
no difference either way. 

Much obliged for your advice about Cenci, Thou and You. 
Gabriel said " Make everything uniform : " but I have not 
the remotest idea of doing that. I think however that, 
if I find (say) one Thou among eleven You's in one same 
speech, I must alter that : explaining of course in my 
notes. My impression is that characteristic negligence had 
much more to do with Shelley's practice in that matter 
than Elizabethan precedent : and indeed that the Elizabethan 



W. J. STILLMAN, 1868 377 

precedent is itself mere carelessness — when it is a case of 
jumble, not of significant variation. 

I have been re-reading Zastrozzi and St Irvyne. What 
incredible performances ! 

With all thanks and greetings, — Yours always, 

W. M. ROSSETTI. 



209. — W. J. Stillman to William Rossettl 

Athens. 
22 December 1868. 

My dear Rossetti, — I enclose the remainder of The Cretan 
Insurrectio7i. You will find two or three pages of corrections 
to be made in the part already in your hands, with new 
beginning; which are necessary to adapt the same, written 
for Macmillan's, for Eraser's. I have made it as concise, I 
think, as it will bear, and hope that Eraser will be able to 
print it at once before the thing loses its interest or historical 
value. You may assure Froude that, as far as facts go, it is 
as accurate as contemporary history can hope to be. I have 
not dealt much in figures because I have rarely been able to 
get numerical estimates from reliable people. 

I believe the insurrection to be pretty near its end, the 
policy of the Greek Ministry having been one of repression ; 
and the expedition of Petropoulaki, instead of Coroneos, has 
finished it morally, as I think it was intended by Bulgaris 
that it should. The Greek Government is now playing a 
little comedy which is intended to save the King and his 
friends from the Greek people, but it will not succeed except 
momentarily. The preparations for war, etc. etc., are all 
paper and braggadocio : and no one in the Government has 
the least intention of fighting, or doing anything to lead to 
fighting, though, in playing with their feu d'artifice, some 
sparks may get into the powder-magazine, and blow-up King 
and all. . . . 

The winter here is charming, and we have many English 



378 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

here, some of whom I like much. I find Athens every way 
preferable to Rome, or even Florence, as a winter-residence. 
It is further from the centres of European politics and interest, 
and the Athenians, with all their intelligence and love of 
news, have not one good newspaper. — Yours sincerely, 

W. J. Stillman. 



210. — William Rossetti — Diary. 

1869. Sunday, "^ Jarmaiy. — Mr Ford* having told me that 
he is about to send me up the MS. of his translation of the 
Purgatorio, and that he regrets my not having had my trans- 
lation published to consult, I sent him the MS. as far as it 
goes — 19 cantos. 

Monday, 4 January. — Began a tabular compendium f of 
the facts etc. of Shelley's life, compiled from the notes I have 
taken from the various books bearing hereon — and still am 
taking. When this compendium is done, it will, I am in 
hopes, be a great step towards the actual writing of the 
Memoir. 

Tuesday, 5 January. — Going on with this, which will be 
a long and somewhat tedious job. . . . 

Thursday, y January. — Browning and others came to 
Euston Square. B[rowning] speaks with great enthusiasm 
of a poem by Donne named Metempsychosis. He says that 
several emendations introduced into ihe Posthutnous Poems of 
Shelley are his suggestions. Supposes, but is not quite sure, 
that these emendations appear in the three current forms of 
S[helley] as now published by Moxon. His Son is going, 
not to Balliol College, Oxford (as originally intended), but to 
Christ Church : B[rowning] found that at Balliol nothing 
would do but hard study of minutiae, and for this his Son 
has no special turn. Dilberoglue considers Shelley's word 

* The Rev. Prebendary James Ford, of Bath. 

t Eventually I made a present of this compendium to my friend Mr 
Buxton Forman. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 379 

" Epipsychidion " is not correct Greek : it would mean (as 
far as its meaning can be fixed) " Concerning the soul — 
matters spiritual." * Miss Ingelow showed considerable, 
though not an artistic, interest in the Japanese coloured 
prints etc. in our dining-room etc. Old Mr Potter.i* aged 
seventy-six, still full of vigour and animation. It is, I 
suppose, six or seven years since I have seen him, and I 
dare say twenty to twenty-five since Gabriel saw him. All 
Brown's three children send first pictures to the forthcoming 
water-colour exhibition at the Dudley Gallery : — Lucy, a 
figure of Cathy painting ; Cathy, portrait of one of the Epps 
girls; Nolly (I suppose) Jason and the Centaur. . . . 

Friday, 8 January. — Passed the proof (which reached me 
last night) of the article on Ruskin I wrote for TJie Broadway 
about a year ago. . . . 

Monday, 1 1 January. — Gave Tupper a sitting for the 
medallion-head he is doing of me. . . . 

Tuesday, i2 January. — Called at Brown's to see the water- 
colours which Lucy, Cathy, and Nolly, are sending to the 
Dudley Gallery. They are all remarkable : Cathy's, I think, 
the least so, though that also promises good tinting and 
surface. Lucy's is excellent in tone and keeping, and Nolly's 
surprising. Brown's water-colour Elijah and Widow's Son, 
and Romeo a7id Juliet, also visible ; and some works by P. P. 
Marshall and Miss Miller.+— The Son of Rev. Mr Ford left 
me the MS. of his Father's Purgatorio. — Swinburne came for 
a Shelley discussion. . . . He is strenuous for sticking to the 
texts revised, or which might have been revised, by Shelley 
himself: urges the restoration of Laon and Cythna bodily — 
but this I shan't do. On various points he convinced me 
that alterations which I had introduced — however plausible — 
had better be excluded ; and this I shall do. Got no further 
than the Prometheus in reading him the principal of my 
notes. He is excessively enthusiastic about Browning's new 

* I believe this should rather be " A Song on the Soul." 
t Mr Cipriani Potter the Musician, my Godfather. 
1. A Daughter of Mr John Miller of Liverpool, and Sister to Mrs P. 
P. Marshall. 



380 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

poem : also about the JMdJiabhdrata, which he has been 
looking at in a French translation under the auspices of 
Bendyshe.* . . . 

Monday, i8 January. — Went to Furnivall's, to talk over 
with Ward his collation of Chaucer's Knight's Tale and 
Boccaccio's Teseide — which W[ard] tells me is much indebted 
to the Thebaid of Statins. Furnivall says that his Father, a 
physician (or surgeon ?) at Egham, attended the second Mrs 
Shelley in at least one of her confinements. S[helley] was 
then living, he understands, at Marlow ; though Bishopgate 
(where S[helley] had lived before Marlow) is much nearer to 
Egham, and F[urnivall] thinks it likely Dr F[urnivall] may 
have been _/?;'i-/ called in during the Bishopgate residence. . . . 

Sunday, 24 January. — Gabriel called. He says that 
Inchbold has for some while past had to give up his own 
lodgings, and had been living at Brett's : B[rett] going 
abroad, he had transferred himself to Jones, without (it would 
seem) any definite invitation. Jones however is also now 
out of town, and Inchbold houses with Howell. Gabriel has 
written another sonnet, A Superscription : has selected six- 
teen sonnets, and sent them to the Fortnightly for the 
March number. He thinks he must have by him altogether 
at least fifty sonnets which he would be willing to publish. 
Scott also has of late been writing sonnets at a great 
rate. . . . 

Monday, 25 January. — . . . Hotten . . . says Swin- 
burne's novel in the form of letters f (of which I have often 
heard, but never, I think, read any of it, only of a different 
and later novel) is being, or about to be, published anony- 
mously in America. Swinburne had offered it to Hotten 
himself; but he, thinking it would make little or no impres- 
sion if anonymous, declined. . . . 

Tuesday, 26 January. — . . . Houghton brought me the 

* Mr Bendyshe was a singular unconventional-minded man ; he 
became for a while Editor of Tl/e Reader (a journal resembling The 
Athenceiim). 

\ I am unable to say whether the American publication did actually 
ensue or not. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 18G9 381 

final circulars in Mrs Morten's case, for me to send to tlrosc 
who subscribed at my instance. He says he is now less 
colour-blind than in general, and wants to paint, and almost 
relinquish woodcut-designing. . . . The tints of green perplex 
him much ; and he finds a difficulty in distinguishing crimson- 
lake from burnt siena. No wonder the colour of his pictures 
lacks some accomplishments. . . . 

Wednesday, 3 February. — Called on J. B. Payne about his 
proposal received 25 January. He has an idea of bringing- 
out a series of English Poets, non-copyright works, very 
cheap ; a publication similar to one by Nimmo, but in better 
taste. Longfellow would be the first : followed by Scott, 
Byron, Shelley, Thomson, Keats, Selections, etc. etc. He 
says Nimmo's edition gives substantially the whole of Byron 
for three and sixpence, and his would be on much the same 
scale of price. For these books he wishes to obtain brief 
prefatory memoirs, with some critical estimate (say 18 to 
20 pp. apiece) ; and wishes besides to have a proper selection 
made of the editions to be printed from. This, without any 
following of the text through the press, would constitute the 
editorial work, and is what he asks me to undertake. I pro- 
posed to do it for £2^ per book, excluding selections, for 
which I would charge higher : he replied that his calculations 
admitted of only £21 per book (allowing the same excep- 
tion) : and, as the pncQ possible to be paid must evidently be 
a leading consideration, I assented to this. . . . He wants 
also to have a few illustrations per volume, etchings prefer- 
entially : some figure-subjects, and others (where the poems 
are of a less definite character) landscape or fancy-pieces. 
He wishes to get these good, but not from a man of such 
position as to demand a heavy price. I named Shields and 
Smetham, and have now written to Gabriel to consider further 
about this point. He does not fancy Hughes (whose Enoch 
Arden he disliked), nor Sandys, whom he does not regard 
as safe for punctuality etc. I told him that the alterations 
I am making in the text of Shelley would be incompatible 
with the retention of his stereotype-plates — at any rate, for 
one edition : this did not seem to disconcert him, as I had 



382 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

rather expected it would, and indeed he appeared to think 
the fate of one of his editions must govern the other two. . . . 
Payne says Mrs Hogg (WiUiams) has turned reHgious, and 
is not easy to get anything out of regarding Shelley (though 
this differs from what I heard in another quarter). He could 
not obtain through her any clue to the conclusion of Hogg's 
Life of S\Jielley\ though known to be written ; but there is 
(or was) a Brother of Hogg alive who is communicative 
enough as far as his knowledge extends. Payne says an 
injunction was obtained to stop the use by Hogg of docu- 
ments entrusted to him by the Shelley family : but H[ogg] 
said this would not stop his writing the completion of the 
Life, as he remembered letters etc. This account, if correct, 
would considerably damp one's confidence as to the contents 
of the concluding volumes, should they ever appear. 

Thursday, 4 February. — My Shelley revision and Memoir 
were mentioned in last AtJicjiaum. I have therefore thought 
it best to write to Garnett, who might otherwise fancy I 
am poaching on his preserves ; and have explained that the 
only memoir now bespoken is a prefatory memoir to accom- 
pany the poems, but that I might perhaps at a future time 
set-to and use up my accumulated materials in a Life forming 
a separate book. . . . Hunt is still in Florence, and per- 
sonally occupied, it appears, on some of the carving-work for 
his Wife's tomb. . . . 

Sunday, 7 February. — It seems that Mrs Hogg ... is to 
be met with sometimes at Lewes's. Scott some while ago 
mooted to L[ewes] my Shelley affair, and L[ewes] proposed 
that I might call, and, if luck served, meet Mrs H[ogg] : and 
the other day he suggested to-day for the call — without 
however bringing Mrs H[ogg] into question. I called ac- 
cordingly with Scott ; Mrs H[ogg] not there. Mrs Lewes 
says she does come sometimes, but not often. I was in- 
troduced to Mrs L[ewes], whom I had seen, but never been 
made known to before. Her face, manner, and conversation, 
show great intellectual sensibility. She spoke with much 
enthusiasm of the Prometheus Unbound and TJie Cenci : 
objects however to the subject of the latter, and demurs to 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 383 

my saying the Pyomctheits is the greatest EngHsh poem since 
Milton — interruptions prevented my ascertaining what she 
would prefer to it. She exalts Shelley above Byron, and his 
blank verse above Tennyson's. Some talk about spiritualism, 
which Lewes, and also evidently Mrs L[ewes], repudiate. 
Mrs Bodichon here. Algeria does not now suit her health 
well — never has done so since she had an African fever some 
little while back. She feels much the alienation (though 
they are still excellent friends) which has ensued between 
herself and Mrs Belloc (Bessie Parkes) in consequence of the 
conversion of the latter to Catholicism. It seems the chief 
motive cause of this conversion was that Mrs Belloc, on 
studying the subject, was greatly impressed by the immense 
agencies which the Catholic Church has in all ages set going 
for material and moral reforms. — Scott has sold to Ellis for 
£^o his translation of Durer's Diary etc. . . . Lewes (so Mrs 
L[ewes] informs me) knew Mrs Shelley, and thought her 
a somewhat conventional person, by no means capable of 
responding to the innermost feelings of Shelley. 

Monday^ 8 February. — Brown, Jones, Morris, and others, 
at Chelsea. Morris is writing at the 2nd Series of The 
EartJily Pa7'adise : some 120 lines yesterday, and 140 the day 
before. He has got to the story of Bellerophon — which he 
finds growing under his hand to scarcely manageable dimen- 
sions. Howell says that the cause between Ruskin and Calvert 
will be coming into Court after all. Among the Turners left to 
the National Gallery were a large number of a great degree 
of indecency : these were burned by Wornum and Ruskin, 
at the time when the latter was arranging the bequest at the 
National Gallery. . . . 

Wedjiesday, 10 February. — Brown called, to consult as 
to undertaking the illustration of the proposed series of 
English Poets. He offers (assuming an endurable price) 
to illustrate the entire series ; making bold drawings on a 
largeish scale, to be photographed in small on to the wood, 
and so engraved. He is not in favour of etchings, nor of full- 
page illustrations. Would not object to having Smetham 
as coadjutor for landscape or fancy- pieces. . . . 



384 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Friday^ 12 February. — Wrote to Payne, naming, in con- 
nexion with the illustrating of the proposed series of British 
Poets, Brown, Smetham, and Nettleship. . . . 

Tuesday, 16 February. — . . . The papers announce, to 
my concern and surprise, the death of my old friend R. B. 
Martineau — a sterling good fellow I always found him. I 
remember he had had one or two very severe attacks of 
rheumatism or rheumatic gout within these few years. Age 
43. . . . 

Thursday, 18 February. — Payne wrote me the other day 
about the proposed illustrations to Poets, and also asking 
when Shelley will probably be ready for the press. I reply 
to-day saying that I . . . should ask £^0 for not less than 
50 nor more than 80 pp. of Memoir — £60 for less than 50 
— ;^8o for more than 80. . . . Went in the evening with 
Mamma and Maria to St James's Hall, to hear G. A. 
Macfarren's Cantata from Christina's Songs in a Cornfield 
(Leslie's Concerts). The music seems to me decidedly good 
— poetical in spirit, and not ordinary. It was well received 
— the Swallozv-Song by Miss Dolby being encored. How- 
ever, my impression is that, as the poem and its music 
continue progressing in cheerlessness to the close, this will 
be a great obstacle to a popular success. The applause at 
the end was respectful, but not impulsive. . . . 

Sunday, 2 1 February. — Gabriel called in Euston Square : 
he is engaged on a Pandora from Mrs Morris. 

Monday, 22 February. — . . . Payne would like my Memoir 
of Shelley to be longish, going on towards the maximum 
of 100 pages. He agrees to my proposal, i^8o for anything 
beyond 80 pp. ; and offers to pay two-thirds of the whole for 
Shelley (;^iio) at once on demand — which is handsome. . . . 
Wednesday, 24 February. — Replied to Payne's letter, 
proposing to call for ;^50 next Wednesday. As regards 
the illustrations to Poets, I expressed reluctance to take 
the initiative with a general list of artists ; named .some 
others who might be added to such a list (Scott, Jones, . . . 
A. Moore, Shields, etc.) ; and communicated the substance 
of what Bro\vn has said. — Mrs Gilchrist called in Euston 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 385 

Square. . . . Tennyson has not yet left the Isle of Wight ; 
but is having a house built in the Haslemere district, and 
has taken a piece of waste land at one end, so as to serve 
as a gap or buffer between his grounds and the public. . . . 

Thursday, 4 MarcJi. — Called on Payne by appointment : 
he handed me a cheque for Shelley on account — making 
it out for the full two-thirds, £71, though I had only 
proposed to take £^^0. He wishes to start the republished 
Poets about October next, bringing out the first six 
volumes all in a lump — Longfellow, Scott, Byron, Shelley, 
Wordsworth, and Moore. . . . Payne renewed the subject 
of my soliciting artists to do the designs. . . . The only 
point quasi-settled was that he will now call on Brown, 
and also on Smetham with a view to head and tail pieces 
etc., and discuss terms with them. . . . 

Saturday, 6 March. — Called on Sandys's invitation to see 
his portrait of Mrs Bairstow finished — which is exceedingly 
good. He has some other things going on, and altogether 
seems in more settled working-trim than usual, were it not 
that he has been suffering dreadfully for some while past from 
boils and a skin-eruption. . . . According to Sandys, Payne 
has disseminated all sorts of scandal about Gabriel among 
others. . . . 

Monday, 8 March. — Dined with Garnett, who gave me a 
transcript of a few fragments by Shelley not yet published, 
and a MS. book of his containing some unpubhshed portions 
of Charles the First, which I shall read through, and may use 
as I like — also a literal translation made by S[helley] from 
parts of Faust as an exercise in German. There are yet 
other scraps of S[helley]'s writing which G[arnett] will copy 
out in time, and let me have. Sir Percy Shelley has no 
children : I saw two photographs of him, in which I don't 
trace any likeness to the poet. He has taste and facility in 
music, and his Father's taste for the water : no tendency to 
sporting. . . . 

Tuesday, 9 J/«;y/^.— Began deciphering the Shelley MS. 
book ; I see there are {i7iter alia) considerable pickings of 
Charles the First to be got out of it. Also began looking 

2 B 



386 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

up at the British Museum editions of poets (Longfellow 
to-day) for the series projected by Payne. . . . 

Thursday, 1 1 March. — Payne writes me that Brown has 
now undertaken to do the illustrations to Byron, to begin 
with. . . . 

Monday, 15 March. — . . . Payne sent me round Longfellow, 
Scott, Byron, Wordsworth, and Moore, that I might note 
the Indexes for the order wherein these authors are to be 
printed in the forthcoming series. This I did ; going upon 
the general (but not scrupulously exact) plan of dividing the 
contents into long poems, short poems, and translations, and 
arranging each of these sections according to date. . . . 

Wednesday, ly March. — . , . Swinburne had lately informed 
me that a Miss Rumble, connected with Mrs Gisborne, is 
understood to be in possession of a number of Shelley relics. 
. . . Garnett (calling on me in the evening to take back a 
Shelley MS.) believes she possesses the MS. of The Cenci, 
but does not suppose she has much — if anything — in the way 
of unpublished MSS. 

Thursday, 18 March. — Norton (from America) and others 
dined at Cheyne Walk. N[orton] says that Whitman is 
inconveniently rough in his personal appearance etc. — will, 
for instance, call in a red shirt in a family where there are 
ladies ; and that this made intercourse with him by cultivated 
people difficult, even including such a philosopher as Emerson 
— (valeat quantum). . . . Gabriel has done two new sonnets — 
Pandora (for his picture now in progress) and Vain Virtues. 
. . . Brown was told by Payne (when he called to negotiate 
about the Byron illustrations, which by the by are to be 
done — eight — for the small sum of ^40) that Harriet Shelley 
drowned herself, because, having descended to the condition 
of a street-walker, she had been out all night and caught no 
one. This is worth bearing in mind as a rumour ; but I 
place no reliance on it whatever, having found Payne's notions 
on Shelley matters very inaccurate, and his talk generally not 
of the kind which courts rigid verification. . . . 

Saturday, 20 March. — Tebbs tells me he has the 
original unpublished Queen Mab, which I must look up 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 387 

when I return from my approaching trip to Rome with 
Tiipper. 

Sunday, 21 March. — Prepared for starting — to Rugby on 
Monday, and to the Continent probably on Thursday. . . . 

Monday, 22 March. — Left London 2.45 P.M., to spend a 
day or two with Tupper at Rugby, and sit for medallion- 
head, before we start together for Rome. . . . 

Friday, 26 March. — Started at 7.40 for Calais and 
Paris. . . . 

Tuesday, 30 March. — A brilliant sunny morning at 
Marseilles. . . . 

Wednesday, 31 March. — Embarked at 8 A.M. The boat is 
Fraissinet's, much less commodious than Valery's by which 
I went to Naples in '66. . . . 

Saturday, 3 April. — Reached Civita Vecchia about 8 A.M., 
just too late to catch the morning train. Walked through 
the draggle - tailed town, entering a Church where there 
is a very complete display of bones, skulls, and skeletons, 
in a side-chapel. The skeletons bear appositely inscribed 
tablets, and some of them are habited like nuns ; others hold 
a scythe, bear a crown, etc. Altogether it is a completer 
piece of the mortuary ghastly than I have seen elsewhere. 
Called the Church "della Morte." Saw a number of prisoners 
in a prison-yard overlooked by the town-ramparts ; dressed in 
black-striped brown. A French soldier on the spot told 
me they were Garibaldians along with malefactors, and I 
threw them a handful of half-franc pieces : afterwards how- 
ever I was told the captured Garibaldians were all removed 
at an early date from Civita Vecchia. Walked out on a moor 
beyond the ramparts, and saw oxen ploughing with a very 
primitive machine, also a shepherd with his flock of sheep. 
He is in the Italian army-reserve, but for the present 
following his pastoral calling. Was in the army at Custozza, 
and expresses great admiration of the Austrian valour. 
Belongs to the March of Ancona (near which city he says 
there has just been a tremendous earthquake), and is leading 
his flock there within the coming twenty days. — Went on to 
Rome at 1.45, and reached the city about 5.30. The railway 



388 noSSETTI PAPERS 

from Civita Vecchia is a sorry affair ; the second-class 
carriage which we took being apparently third - class as 
well, and full of a singularly miscellaneous sample of the 
Italian mobocracy. . . . Put up at the Minerva, which is 
fairly, but it seems not over-crowdedly, full. T[upper] very 
unwell with his bronchial attack. 

Stmday,^ April. — ... I walked into the Minerva Church 
at haphazard ; and found the Pope was to come in much 
state, assist at Mass, and distribute certain dowries to a 
couple of dozen or so of girls — some for marriage, and others 
for the conventual life. It was a noble sight, with splendid 
choral service. Pope borne in his chair and wearing triple 
crown ; afterwards his mitre ; and at times only the white 
skull-cap. He looks perhaps older and more passive than 
most of the portraits, but has a very impressive presence, and 
his voice is still powerful and harmonious. Saw Antonelli 
and Cardinal Bonaparte, but not very clearl}-. The Minerva 
is a very noble interior, of Gothic structure (pointed arches), 
but wholly renovated from 1848 to 1855, in a very decorous 
and complete style in its way, though no doubt those who 
knew it before might find the present aspect of the Church a 
sad sight. . . . 

Tuesday, 6 April. — Began the day by . . . going through 
the vile nuisance of lodging-hunting. We cut it short, and 
soon pitched upon two rooms, 71 Via de'due Macelli, 5 francs 
per day. . . . 

Tuesday, 13 April. — . . . Took a cab, and went to a 
number of Churches etc. . . . Santa Prassede : fine mosaics. 
There is no tomb at all suggestive of Browning's poem of 
The Bishop orders his Tomb at St Praxeds. . . . 

Thursday, 15 April. — . . . Reached Florence about 
9.30 [p.m.]. 

Friday, \6 April. — . . . Called on Kirkup, who is recover- 
ing from a bad rheumatism, but is perfectly deaf, and looks 
hardly likely to last long ; on Theodoric, 23 Piazza di Santo 
Spirito. He thinks of settling in England, or probably 
Scotland, within two months or so : the water here gave 
him an attack of gravel, not to speak of his bad miliary 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 389 

fever. Tupper looked-up Hunt, whom I saw in the evening. 
He speaks of starting for Venice on Monday, and being in 
Jerusalem about the end of May. 

Saturday, ly April. — Went to the Uffizi and Santo Spirito. 
Tupper and I dined at Theodoric's. Theodoric introduced me 
to Jarves * and his Wife. Saw J[arves]'s pictures. He has 
a small Leonardo (Hunt believes it to be a genuine one) of 
The Virgin and Child ; a Lippo Lippi of ditto ; a ditto of 
St Jerome, and another with the lion ; a supposed Giorgione 
of a pilgrim sent by the Pope to warn a Malatesta against 
retaining his mistress etc. All these are interesting pictures, 
of artistic merit proportional to their attributions. There 
are several others — a picture inscribed apparently as by 
Cima da Conegliano {St Jerome in Desert), etc. etc. . . . 

Monday, \^ April. — About 7.30 A.M. Tupper entered my 
room half dead with an attack of spasms which had begun 
about midnight. It will be impossible to leave to-day, or I 
dare say for two or three days to come. I went at once for 
a Doctor named in Murray, Dr Wilson, and found him (at a 
different address). He couldn't come at once ; and mean- 
while Hunt (who had turned up, greatly to my consolation) 
sent for a Dr Duffy, who came, and at last, at 1 1 A.M., partially 
subdued the spasms, hitherto unintermitted. More or less 
suffering all day and evening, and 

Tuesday, 20 April. — After I had administered a medicine 
ordered by Dr Duffy, at 3 a.m., a horrible spasm seized poor 
Tupper. His sufferings continued with variations till arrival 
of Dr Duffy. Doctor says that the case is the severest he has 
ever seen, the muscles being as hard as bone all along the 
abdomen, and as contracted as a clenched fist : more like 
tetanus than anything else. He tried to-day a cutaneous 
injection of the Calabar bean. Suggested privately to me 
that, if Tupper should in the afternoon continue bad, we 
should (Hunt and I, as coming from ourselves) suggest to 
T[upper] to call-in a second physician of eminence, Dr Burci. 
T[upper] being very weak in the afternoon, and still in per- 

* Mr Jarves was an American picture-collector, and I believe 
picture-dealer. He wrote one or two books on fine art. 



390 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

petual and severe pain, this was done. Dr B[urci] confirms 
Dr D[ufTy]'s treatment (which includes a number of minor in- 
ternal and external applications not above detailed) ; and pro- 
nounces the disease to be nervous contraction of the muscles 
of the lower venter, consequent on a cold {j-eujiia) — not much 
different from tetanus. He tells me however, in reply to my 
enquiry, that lockjaw is not to be apprehended. Both the 
Doctors declare the case to be one of very serious and 
even imminent danger, but not beyond hope. Theodoric, 
. . . his Wife, and Hunt, are most prodigal of kind 
exertions and attentions. All this is a most melancholy 
state of things : so excellent a fellow as poor Tupper, and 
one of such unusual knowledge and capacity of enquiry, to 
die in this horrible way in a foreign country, as the result of 
a mere pleasure-trip. His fortitude surprises every one, the 
Doctor included ; who says he never saw the equal of it, 
nor so astonishing and obstinate a case of spasms. A ray of 
hope still remains. . . . Tupper . . . insists that neither of his 
Brothers must come, but (if any one) his eldest Sister or 
Cousin Deacon : so I again telegraphed to that effect. . , . 
A nurse engaged, at my proposal, and selected by Dr D[uffy]. 

Wednesday, 21 April. — Tupper passed a bad night, but 
not quite so bad. . . . 

TJiursday, 22 April. — Tupper improved from about 6.30 
A.M., the spasms having subsided. Another telegram to 
say his Sister Kate (not George) will come. . . . 

Saturday, 24 April. — Mrs Lewis arrived. . . . Theodoric 
introduced me to the Chamber of Deputies, and to Ansanti 
and Ricciardi,* who is very Jewish-looking, amusingly 
energetic in speech, and wants me to push in London his 
circulars etc. for a Council of Freethinkers at Naples, in 
rivalry of the Church-Council at Rome. 

Sunday, 25 April. — Tupper continues improving, and 
may now, I hope, be deemed convalescent ; though much 
reduced, and with the question of affection of the lungs 
as the origin of the whole illness yet unsettled, so far as I 

* The Conte Giuseppe Ricciardi, a vigorous revolutionary Repub- 
lican ; he had known me in boyhood. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 391 

know. I went out for the whole day with Hunt, who is 
doing a Bianca {Taming of Shrew) from an American young 
lady. He has some good things that he has picked up ; — 
an admirable naked Sainl in Torment by Velasquez ; two 
Tintorets, Miracles of S. Rock (?) ; lovely bas-relief Virgin 
and Child, ascribed to Donatello ; etc. Went to Fiesole. . . . 

Monday, 26 April. — ... I settled to go to-morrow, if 
the Doctor in the morning should see no reason to the 
contrary. . . . 

Tuesday, 27 April. — Dr Duffy examined Tupper care- 
fully, to find out whether or not his lungs are affected. 
He cannot find that they are. . . . The Doctor rather 
recommends a return to England as soon as may be 
manageable. . . . Reached Turin at night. . . . 

Saturday, i May. — . . . Returned to London by the 
Calais evening express. . . . 

Wednesday, 5 May. — Wrote to Trelawny (to whom 
Kirkup had already sent some intimation on the subject) ask- 
ing permission to consult him on points which may require 
elucidation when I am doing the Shelley Memoir. . . . 

TJmrsday, 6 May. — . . . Scott . . . has sent to Linton * 
in America the portrait of Emerson by David Scott : Linton 
is getting on flourishingly there. Gabriel engaged on 
Pandora, and on a head of Beatrice f (Mrs Morris the sitter 
for both). He says that he is informed that Hunt and 
Woolner went lately to Craven, the owner of some of 
G[abriel]'s water-colours, and made — Hunt especially — a 
virulent attack upon these works : and he thinks of writing 
to Hunt to say that they must henceforth meet as strangers. 
For my part I strongly suspect that H[unt] did no more 
than express his sincere opinions in such terms as any 
qualified man has a right to use. . . . 

Sunday, 9 May. — Finished giving my revised Shelley 
another — and I hope final — reading. The re-reading of my 
own notes still remains to be done. . . . 

Thursday, 13 May. — . . . Christina showed me a letter, 

* W. J. Linton, the excellent wood-engraver, 
t I have not a clear idea as to this Beatrice, 



392 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

communicated lately to her by Mrs Eckley * from a Miss 
Stisted (at Villa Stisted, Bagni di Lucca) : she is the owner 
of the copy of Shelley's Indian Serenade which was in his 
pocket when his corpse was recovered — and also the copy of 
it written out by Browning. Miss Stisted wishes to dispose 
of a collection of autographs she has, including (I understand) 
this poem. I must let Garnett know of this, for the informa- 
tion of the Shelley family, and also of the British Museum. — 
Trelawny has replied to my letter : he is out of town now, 
but says he will write again on his return. Made a beginning 
with the Memoir of Shelley. 

Friday^ 14 May. — Wrote to Garnett about the above affair 
of Miss Stisted ; also mentioned it to Frederick Locker, on 
whom I called in the afternoon to see the writings of Shelley 
in his possession. He has — i, a valuable letter of Shelley 
from Italy to Peacock, published in Eraser by P[eacock] ; 
2, a letter from S[helley] to Leigh Hunt, published in Hunts 
Correspondence, but with a long P.S. by Mrs Shelley which 
(to the best of my recollection) is unpublished ; 3, a letter of 
Shelley to one of his lawyers or men of business (Parker, if 
memory serves) dated 181 5, saying that he wants i^500, and 
objecting to a cutting-down of timber proposed by his 
Father ; 4, a string of verses addressed by S[helley] to 
Graham, date probably about 181 2 or 181 3. . . . I copied 
out these verses, which are by no means so bad as most of 
S[helley]'s juvenilia ; but they are. . . . unfilial . . . Locker also 
has by him ... a letter of Leigh Hunt's, saying that Arthur 
Hallam was writing something f about " Signor Rossetti's 
strange theories concerning Dante." He has a few good 
works of art ; red-chalk drawing by Michelangelo of the 
body of Adam, in the Sixtine Chapel Creation of Adam ; 
three pen-drawings by Titian, very fine, two of them remark- 
able tree-studies ; a small Cranach picture of The Fall of 
Man ; Watteau, sketch oil-picture for a larger one of a 
Wedding-procession, excellent ; Deatli of Laocoon, drawing 

* An American lady, who saw Christina several times. 
t This was published — named Remarks on RossettPs Spirito 
/Intipapale, 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 393 

ascribed by Robinson to da Vinci, though I should doubt 
it ; an indecent pair of small pictures by Hogarth ; wonder- 
fully finished small head-drawing by Holbein — etc. etc. 
Also an autograph receipt of Michelangelo's signed " Michel- 
agnolo [or angelo] Schultore ; " and the original edition of 
Browning's Paracelsus^ with B[rowning]'s numerous MS. 
corrections for the re-issue, given to him by B[rowning]. 

Thursday, 20 May. — Tupper returned from abroad last 
night. I went round to G[eorge] Tupper's to see him this 
evening, and find him in what might be considered his 
ordinary state of health, though a little pulled down. He is 
taking cod-liver oil ; has got rid of his cough and spitting, 
and says he is now better than when he started from England 
for Rome. To-morrow he returns to Rugby. — Sent to the 
Editor of TJie Pall Mall Gazette the circular which Ricciardi 
gave me in Florence relative to the proposed meeting of 
Freethinkers in Naples. . . . 

Tuesday, 25 May. — Wilson, the Bookseller in Great 
Russell Street, informs me that Medwin, the biographer of 
Shelley etc., is still living, but with very decayed faculties : 
he is residing at or near Horsham at present. He must 
be about eighty, I compute. 

Wednesday, 26 May. — Went to the R.A. Millais's 
Vanessa is most splendid — perhaps his finest piece of work. 
Cathy Brown's At the Opera, surprisingly good under the 
circumstances. One Robinson, whose name I notice for 
the first time, has a remarkable picture of Ti'oiibadours, 
poetical in its affinities. 

Thursday, 27 May. — Cayley tells me that the Poems of 
Simcox, who wrote a ProinetJieus Unbound in completion 
of yEschylus, are very good. He has been invited to join 
the staff of The Daily Telegraph, as translator of foreign 
telegrams : this would require his attendance at the office 
from 9 P.M. to 3 A.M. He is considering whether to accept 
or not. — Gabriel has written several new sonnets. His 
practice with poetry is first to write the thing in the rough, 
and then to turn over dictionaries of rhymes and synonyms 
so as to bring the poem into the most perfect form. He 



394 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

has done nothing further with a view to re-knitting his 
friendship with Sandys ; which has now lapsed, by S[andys]'s 
decision, in consequence of Gabriel's having written to him 
deprecating his painting (as Howell has told him S[andys] 
was doing) a Lucretia Borgia, of exactly the same general 
subject as G[abriel]'s own. This G[abriel] represented to 
S[andys] as one additional instance of the habit he has of 
founding his subjects and treatment on G[abriel]. S[andys] 
denied the particular instance of the Lucretia, and, as he 
describes the subject, it cannol be called a plagiarism. He 
also denied the general assertion ; but many discerning 
people can see that he is wrong there, whether consciously 
or unconsciously. . . . 

Saha'da-}', 29 3Iaj'. — ... In the evening went round to 
Brown's, where were Scott, Gabriel, and Swinburne ; who 
had brought round Consul Cameron, the late Abyssinian 
captive, whom he has just got to know through Consul 
Burton, and for whom he seems to have conceived an 
excessive affection. The Consul is a man of large physique, 
but still suffering considerably from the effects of his fetters, 
etc. ; and there is something strange and inconclusive in his 
demeanour, which Brown thought must arise from his having 
been drinking, but which I should rather be inclined to 
attribute to his strange experiences and sufferings, long 
seclusion from civilized life, etc. Swinburne says that 
Theodore tortured Cameron on one occasion, tying his 
whole frame up in ropes so tight that he could not only 
not move, but scarcely could perform any animal or vital 
function whatever : at last he fainted, or would probably 
have died. Cameron, who is an aristocrat, believes there 
will be a fighting revolution in England within three or 
four years. Swinburne says that Mazzini has no liking 
for Bright, on account of his non-interference politics, and 
especially the affair of " Perish Savoy ! " He again urged 
me much to restore Laon and CytJina, instead of TJie Revolt 
of Isla7)i, to the text of Shelley : this I decline to do, mainly 
on the ground that Shelley, whether willingly or the reverse, 
did himself alter the poem to its present form — and moreover 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 395 

I have considerable doubts whether Payne would print the 
Laon and C\^ythnd\ version. Swinburne is engaged on a 
review of L Homme qui Rit, and in doubts how far he shall 
admit in print the absurd side of the book. I advised him to 
admit it unreservedly, saying at the same time that it matters 
little, the essential of the book being its genius and imagina- 
tion. Gabriel says that Carlyle sums up the late American 
War by saying that, " The South said to the nigger, God bless 
you and be a slave — and the North said, God damn you and 
be free." This is very fine, widely as one may dissent from 
the conception it implies. . . . 

Wednesday, 2 June. — Went to the Water-Colour Society. 
Hunt's Moonlight at Salerno is excellent — also Jones's Circe, 
George and Dragon, and others. . . . 

Friday, 4 June. — Poor little Mike Halliday, I learn from 
Gabriel, died the other day. He had been attending the 
funeral of a brother-in-law, whose affairs are left in a com- 
plicated state ; came home much depressed ; was soon seized 
with an inflammatory attack ; and succumbed in a day or 
two. His good old nurse Anne, who has always been with 
him, and taking care of him like a mother, is left unprovided 
for, it seems : she had lent away her savings to the brother-in- 
law, and is told that she can only come in with the other 
creditors. It is singular that both Martineau and Halliday, 
who set up house with Hunt about 1856, should thus have died 
almost suddenly and within a few months of one another. — 
Sandys sent the other day to pay Gabriel ^50 that he owed 
him (though in fact there is probably as much as another 
£^0 owing), with a letter to say that that severed the last 
link between them. Gabriel responded in a long letter, 
full of right sense and feeling, to say that, so far as he is 
concerned, there is nothing to make a breach between them, 
though at the same time he cannot recede from what he said 
in the first instance about appropriation (no doubt un- 
conscious) of his subjects and scheme of treatment by 
Sandys. . . . 

Saturday, 5 June. — Gabriel showed me a letter he has 
received from Sandys in reply to his very friendly and con- 



396 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

ciliatory one ; it is written in an unhandsome spirit, and 
gives the matter its quietus. He has paid G[abriel] £g in 
addition, treating it as the whole of what remained due. 
Gabriel also showed me a song he has written, Dark Lily* 
and two Italian sonnets. He says that Halliday's two Persian 
cats lay outside his death-chamber in a desolate way, and 
couldn't be got to move away until the Doctors arrived to 
make a post-mortem examination. 

Sunday, 6 June. — Dilberoglue, who called, says that . . . 
Carlyle has now for some while past suffered from con- 
tinual sleeplessness. He walks out nightly from io| P.M. to 
i-|. He is believed to be engaged in collecting together some 
autobiographical materials ; his niece, now living with him, 
is a simple-hearted Scotch girl of eighteen or nineteen, proud 
of doing him the least service. He smokes birdseye mostly, 
but negrohead as a finale, and goes on at smoking pretty 
well all the day. 

Mo7iday, y June. — Met Millais in the street : he looks very 
robust now, spite of his illness some few months ago. He 
says that Munro -j" is dying at Cannes — as indeed I had heard 
before ; and he is trying to get an advantageous sale for 
certain artistic properties which Halliday has left behind 
— a sketch by Hunt from the Temple picture etc. 

Tuesday, 8 Jtme. — Christina went off with the Scotts, to 
spend a month or more at Penkill. . . . 

Wednesday, g. — Went to the private view of the Supple- 
mentary Exhibition (pictures refused by the R.A.). Inch- 
bold, contrary to the intention he intimated to me, exhibits 
— also Brett. On the whole it is far the reverse of a good 
exhibition. As regards several of the pictures, the refusal was 
a credit to the R.A. ; others are fully good enough to be 
hung, but without any very urgent claim ; those which ought 
positively to have been hung are a very small minority. 
Brown called in the evening. His three children are now 
attending a drawing-school at Bolsover Street, which they 
have all to themselves on the days they go, with Brown to 

* So far as I recollect, this is the song published as Love-Lily. 
t Alexander Munro the sculptor, 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIAHY, 1869 397 

look over their work. He says that he himself has for some 
while past suffered from depression of spirits, though his 
health, eyesight, etc., are strong, and no sort of illness sticks 
very hard to him of late: he has been doing remarkably 
little in the way of painting. . . . 

Saturday^ 12 June. — Going on with the Memoir of Shelley : 
have now got to Prometheus and TJie Cenci. 

Sunday, 13 June. — Continuing ditto. I find that, unless 
Payne objects to the length of the Memoir (which I have no 
reason to expect), I shall have succeeded in saying in it most 
of what I particularly want to say — at any rate as regards the 
facts of Shelley's life and his poems. How much I shall be 
able to put-in of opinion and characteristic anecdote I as yet 
can't determine. This state of things renders me less anxious 
than before (though by no means undesirous) to write after- 
wards a full Life, such as was vaguely proposed to be done 
between Garnett and myself I think, if the opportunity offers, 
I would now prefer to collect (as pointed at in my Memoir) 
all Shelley's own letters, and other autobiographic details 
whether in poetry or prose, and print them in proper 
sequence, with the slightest possible connecting thread of 
matters of fact.* If I did this, and published the collection 
with my Memoir reprinted as introduction, I should regard it 
as a not unsatisfactory compendium of Shelley's life. 

Monday, 14 June. — Theodoric and his Wife arrived from 
Florence and Paris. . . . Nolly Brown brought round a photo- 
graph from his water-colour of a man riding a horse into the 
seaf — which looks quite fine in the photograph, and must, at 
any rate, be decidedly good. . . . 

Thursday, 17 Ji4,ne. — Theodoric tells me that Guasti, the 
Sub-Librarian at the Magliabecchian Library, has lately dis- 
covered documents proving that Dante was a " bad character " 
— leaving his debts unpaid etc. ; indeed, the suggestion is that 
this, and not a political motive, was the veritable cause of his 

* After an interval, I set to at this work, and carried it to completion. 
Difficulties arose as to copyright etc., and my compilation remains un- 
published. 

t This water-colour was entitled Obstitiacy. 



398 ilOSSETTI PAPERS 

banishment, but that I can't believe. The national rever- 
ence for Dante induces the authorities to keep this matter 
close.* . . . 

Friday, i8 J^ine. — . . . Cayley tells me that the salary 
offered him by The Daily Telegraph for translating foreign 
telegrams was ;^I50 with contingent increase; but, since he 
went to the office, he has heard no more about it, and the 
question remains unsettled. . . . 

Tuesday, 22 June. — Going on with Shelley Memoir. Tre- 
lawny writes me that he is back in town, and willing to see 
me ; and I think I shall offer him the dedication. . . . 

Friday, 25 June. — Finished the Memoir of Shelley, which 
now only needs a final revision. . . . 

Monday, 28 June. — Called on Trelawny, a-propos of 
Shelley.-f- He is still a very fine vigorous old man, most ener- 
getic in tone and manner at moments. Stayed with him 
full four hours, and had a highly interesting conversation on 
Shelley, whom he regards with the same undimmed enthusiasm 
as ever — branching off somewhat too frequently to other 
subjects, such as America, medical systems, etc. He retains 
his ancient habit \ of going stockingless. He gave me a 
number of interesting details about Shelley, and confided to 
me the original MSS. of the poems to Mrs Williams, with the 
scraps of message which accompanied them — most valuable. 
The bulk of what he said will be incorporated in my Memoir. 
He did not greatly like Mrs Shelley, thinking her too eager 
to stand well with society, and, as regards Shelley, too fractious 
and plaguy — also she had none of the habits of a housewife, 
and dinner etc. had very much to take care of themselves. 
T[relawny] possesses and showed me a pen-and-ink sketch of 
Shelley, head and shoulders, which he considers gives a 

* I cannot remember having ever heard any more about this serious 
matter. 

t A considerable majority of what my Diary contains about Trelawny 
was published in The Athenauni in 1882, under the title Talks 7vith 
Trelawny. Some few details were there omitted, and I think it as well 
to re-extract here from the Diary. 

X I became aware of this habit in 1843, when Trelawny, on behalf of 
Mr Temple Leader, called once or twice to see my Father. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 399 

goodish idea of him : he cannot now recollect whether or not 
it is by Williams or by whom else. It looks in a general way 
like a copy from Miss Curran's portrait, or some engraving 
after that : but a strict comparison of the two does not by any 
means satisfy me that it is such. He has also oil-portraits of 
Mrs Shelley and Miss Clairmont by Miss Curran * not bad. 
He says Miss Clairmont became a somewhat bigoted Roman 
Catholic, went mad at last, and has been — perhaps now is — in 
an asylum.f Shelley's heart was delivered to Mrs S[helley] ; 
but she used to say it was " too painful," etc. etc., and the 
heart was then transferred to Leigh Hunt. T[relawny] pre- 
sumes it may now be in the possession of Thornton H[unt]. 
T[relawny] picked out of the pyre, he says, a bit of Shelley's 
kidney (?) and showed it to Vacca, who expressed an opinion 
that the disease Shelley had suffered from was not nephritic. 
T[relawny] dislikes Sir Percy Shelley, and more particularly 
Lady S[helley], who he says is thinking of bringing out a 
" modernized " (query in what sense) version of S[helley]'s 
poems — certainly a most base idea, if in reality entertained. 
He says the S\}ielley\ Meviorials are not really done by Lady 
S[helley], but by a Mr Touchett. Trelawny accepts the dedi- 
cation of my edition of Shelley ; he is against a large size of 
book for poetry, advocating such volumes only as can go 
into the pocket. He dislikes Shelley's maiden Sisters, but 
likes Mrs Haynes : \ thinks Mrs Hogg would not be communi- 
cative about S[helley]. He declined to communicate his 
S[helley] materials to Lady S[helley] or to Garnett — because, 
he says, the letter addressed to him inviting such communica- 
tion took it for granted that he would be only too glad to 
make himself useful. I may therefore esteem myself lucky 
that nothing has been done on my part to set his bristles up. 

* These two portraits I understood to be in strictness the property of 
the Shelley family — to whom they must have been returned after Tre- 
lawny 's death. 

t I cannot say what amount of foundation there may have been for 
this statement. In 1873 I saw Miss Clairmont, who presented every 
appearance of entire sanity. 

I Also a Sister of Shelley. 



400 HOSSETTI PAPERS 

Tuesday, 29 June. — . . . Wrote Garnett, sending him 
Swinburne's letter conveying what Browning says about 
Harriet [Shelley]. . . . 

Thursday, i July. — Looked-up a few old magazine-articles 
on Shelley in the British Museum. Those in The Literary 
Gazette are beyond anything for abuse. 

Friday, 2 July. — Lent my Shelley Memoir to Garnett for 
inspection. . . . He handed me the transcripts he has made 
from hitherto unprinted portions of Marenghi and the Un- 
Jinished Drama, and from Virgil's Gallus. I in the evening 
put these into their places in the text, revised the index, and 
I believe there is now no more to be done to text or notes. 

Saturday, 3 Jtdy. — . . . Trelawny came in, and spent the 
whole evening talking with me : I introduced Garnett (then 
dining with me) to him ; also Gabriel, who looked in late. 
I was rather nervous as to the reception which Trel[awny], 
who is hostile to Lady Shelley and all her surroundings, 
might accord to Garnett ; but luckily he received him well, 
and, after his departure, expressed a good impression of 
him. Trel[awny] had not an unpleasant impression of 
Shelley's voice, save when he was excited, and then it turned 
shrieky : as on one occasion when Shelley came in much 
perturbed from an interview with Byron, and screeched " By 
God! he's no better than a Christian." Trel[awny] saw 
something of Japan in his youth, and was much taken with 
my series of Japanese prints round the dining-room. He 
must be 75 (or I think "jG) years of age,* but thinks nothing 
of sitting up till midnight, and walking home, perhaps /^\ 
miles, from my neighbourhood. When he left me, about 
II, he was going round to Digby Wyatt's in Tavistock 
Place. I returned him the Shelley MS. and Sivellfoot. He 
says he will write down all residual reminiscences of Shelley, 
Byron, etc., to be published after his death. Garnett says 
Tr[elawny] is mistaken in supposing Touchett the principal 
writer of the Shelley Memorials : it was not Touchett, nor 
yet Lady Shelley. 

* Trelawny was, in fact, born in November 1792 ; therefore in 
July 1869 he was getting on towards 77 years of age. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 401 

Sunday^ 0^ July. — Browning called to talk over the Harriet 
Shelley affair. Swinburne had mistaken him in supposing 
that he had seen the documents named in Forster's Life of 
Landov. He is now not on comfortable terms with F[orster], 
and has seen nothing of those documents. What he has 
seen is a set of letters from Harriet, then in the hands of 
Hookham the publisher, and some or all addressed to him : 
these were placed in Browning's hands at the time he was 
editing the forged letters. He quite confirms the drift of the 
correspondence as stated by Swinburne ; authorizes me to 
use the information, but would not wish his name mentioned. 
I modified this section of my Memoir accordingly. Browning 
talked about an article in the Temple Bar, saying that he, as 
shown in the Ring and Book, is an analyst, not creator, of 
character. This, B[rowning] very truly says, is not appli- 
cable ; because he has had to create, out of the mass of 
almost equally balanced evidence, the characters of the book 
as he conceives them, and it is only after that process that 
the analysing method can come into play. I see he dislikes 
Trelawny quite as much as T[relawny] dislikes him (which is 
not a little). He told me a story of T[relawny]'s having 
eloped with a . . . lady, . . . and, on being pursued by the 
Father, having told him that he had no objection to marrying 
her, but he had already five or six wives in various parts of 
the world. B[rowning] knows all about Byron's divorce ; 
partly from Mrs Jameson, who was intimate with Lady 
Byron. He says the circumstances are very disgraceful to 
Byron ; but (though he did not specify the particulars) it 
is quite clear the principal cause of separation, as understood 
by Br[owning], is not that . . . which S. mentioned to 
me long ago as almost for certain known. . . , Basil 
Montagu is the lawyer whom, as Br[owning] tells me, 
Shelley consulted with a view to getting Harriet to live with 
Mary and himself I have named the fact in my Memoir, 
but not the personage. 

Monday, 5 July. — . . . Left Shelley at Moxon's. In the 
evening made out a list of books in my hands whence I can 
make-up the notices (for the series of British Poets) of Byron, 

2 C 



402 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Scott, Moore, Wordsworth, and Longfellow ; also the books 
whence I could compile volumes of Ballads, Songs, and Mis- 
cellaneous Poetry. . . . 

Thursday,'^ July. — Went to a party at Brown's. . . . Brown 
showed me crayon-portraits he has done of his Wife (the best 
from her), Miss Spartali (not beautiful nor a characteristic 
likeness, and rather dowdy-looking, yet interesting), and a 
wood-design for Byron's Sardanapalus, very good. Morris 
did 738 lines of poetry — a Scandinavian story — in one day : 
it tired him much, and next day or afterwards he re-wrote a 
large proportion of it. This is an astonishing feat. Swin- 
burne introduced me to Mathilde Blind, who is a wild Shelley 
enthusiast. She has seen the Sh[elley] relics in the possession 
of Miss Rumble : . . . they comprise copies of the poems to 
Mrs Williams, and letters from Emilia Viviani to Sh[elley], 
whom she addresses as " sposo adorato." She will make an 
effort to get hold of these writings, and show them me : but I 
doubt her success. Mr Freckelton, who has seen them in 
Miss Rumble's hands, and says they are unimportant, is a 
Unitarian Minister. Reveley's * seeming indifference to 
Shelley matters is more at the dictation of his Wife than any- 
thing else : the latter affirms that Shelley owed Reveley i^iooo, 
which seems most unlikely. Mason tells me he once did a 
view of the Roman Cemetery, with Keats's tomb — not 
Shelley's. Miss Blind says that Ledru Rollin is very hostile 
to Victor Hugo, and laughs at his writings. Mazzini is 
now in England. Also that Mrs Shelley opposed a wish 
of her son to marry a daughter of Williams, saying she 
was not a suitable match in point of station. Trelawny 
had told me the other day that a daughter of Williams 
(query the same?) married one of Leigh Hunt's sons. He 
disliked the whole Hunt family — thought Hunt exceedingly 
selfish. . . . 

Sunday, 1 1 July. — . . . Began (with Nightingale Valley) f 

* I.e., the Henry Reveley, then a young engineer, addressed by Shelley 
in some letters. He was more or less connected with the Shelley docu- 
ments held by Miss Rumble. 

t The poetic selection compiled by William Allingham. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 403 

reading up for a volume of Selected Poems.* I have for years 
and years had a hobby in favour of doing such a volume of 
" Perfect Poems " — compositions such as I believe to be not 
only admirable but flawless. This will probably not fall in with 
Moxon's plan : but, in collecting my materials for his Selection, 
I shall keep the distinction in sight for my own satisfaction. I 
would not admit among Perfect Poems anything that did not 
unite these qualifications — i, lofty general calibre; 2, freedom 
from anything which can be distinctly marked as a fault — 
mere ?iottons or prepossessions of my own not being allowed 
to weigh in assessing faults. . . . 

Tuesday, 13 Jnfy. — Mrs Gilchrist writes me another 
(3rd) incredibly enthusiastic letter about Whitman, whose 
complete poems she has now been reading. This is a 
wonderful phenomenon to me, and so curious that I have 
felt justified in sending to O'Connor (W[hitman]'s friend in 
Washington) an extract from Mrs G[ilchrist]'s three letters, 
but without giving any clue to her identity. . . . 

Sunday, 18 July. — . . . Gabriel has begun his three- 
quarter picture of Pandora; but wants to carry out the 
same subject whole-length. He has done a crayon half- 
figure of Penelope — one of an indefinite number of crayon- 
figures which Agnewhas commissioned him for at ;^8o apiece. 
G[abriel] and I went to the Prinseps' — first time I have been 
there an unconscionable while. Watts's Endymion, Daphne, 
Millais, Clytie (same composition in painting as the bust, 
perhaps his most vigorous piece of flesh-painting), new 
picture from the Greek head at Oxford, very lovely — etc. . . . 

Monday, 19 July. — As Mrs Gilchrist, at my prompting, 
thinks of turning to some public account the letters she has 
been writing me about Whitman, I returned them to her, 
telling her at the same time that I had already sent extracts 
to O'Connor for Whitman to see. . . . 

Wednesday, 21 July. — Met Brown, who tells me Morris 
and his Wife, who are going to Ems for the health of the 

* Messrs Moxon did not eventually publish any such volume of Mis- 
cellaneous Poems selected by me — only a Selection of Humorous Poems, 
and another of American Poems, 



404 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

latter, along with her Sister and Lucy Brown (both of whom 
will return after reaching Cologne or Coblentz), started the 
other day, and had arrived at Calais. They had to change 
into a small steamer to cross the bar, which knocked up Mrs 
Morris a good deal. . . . 

Tluirsdav, 22 July. — J. Deffett Francis calls on me, and 
produces a copy of a very valuable early letter of Shelley — 
which copy he made from one of several originals in the 
possession of Mr J. H, Slack. I wrote to Mr S[lack], asking 
whether he would permit me to call and see the letters. 
Also made a copy for myself from Francis's copy (which I 
returned to him in the evening) : but shall of course be 
unable, unless Mr Slack allows me, to use the information, 
unless merely for rectifying negatively any mis-statement 
made in my Memoir. . . . 

Friday, 23 July. — Christina returned from Penkill. — Wrote 
in reply to another letter from Mrs Gilchrist, saying that the 
only things I think she would be quite safe in doing in con- 
nexion with Whitman would be — i, to consider any proposal 
that may hereafter come from W[hitman] or O'Connor for 
American publication of the extracts I have sent the latter 
from her letters, without her name ; and 2, to write for English 
publication a notice of the Selection alone. 

Saturday, 2^ July. — Tinskys Afa^a^ine for to-day contains 
a first article on T/ie Rossettis — mainly Christina : it is evi- 
dently written by some one who knows soj/icthing about us, 
but who I have not the least idea.* . . . 

Monday, 26 July. — Mr Slack having sanctioned my calling 
this evening, I went round, and met with much open good- 
nature from himself and his Wife. He possesses a series of 
letters between Shelley and Miss Kitchener (the " Brown 
Demon "), of great importance and curiosity for that early 
part of Shelley's life, 1811-12. The letters used to be in the 
hands of Miss H[itchener] — those emanating from herself 
being presumably copies of what she dispatched to S[helley] : 
then a Mrs Hoist had them : the present actual or presumable 
owner is a Mrs Buxton. The correspondence has been left 
* Mr Harry Buxton Forman. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI- DIARY, 1869 405 

for many years undisturbed in Mr Slack's hands ; and he is 
not inclined, by starting any question as to publication of any 
part of the letters, to raise the possible question of their being 
altogether transferred from his hands to Mrs Buxton's. 
There were more than forty letters from Shelley himself, and 
perhaps some dozen of Miss Kitchener's ; but, in some way 
that Mr Slack can't account for, several of Shelley's are not 
immediately forthcoming — perhaps a full third or more of the 
total. S[helley]'s letters are mostly quite long, somewhat 
better written than most of the early ones printed by Hogg, 
but full of unmeaning effusivenesses for the Brown Demon. 
Slack does not feel at liberty to sanction my saying anything 
distinct about the important point which appears in several of 
the letters besides the one copied by Francis — viz. : that, 
according to Harriet's statement to Shelley, Hogg, during 
S[helley]'s absence on business in Sussex while Harriet and 
Hogg remained behind at York in i8ii,had tried to seduce 
Harriet ; which Hogg confessed with some show of contrition, 
and S[helley], though very much taken aback, was ready to 
pardon, but eventually Hogg assumed a hectoring tone, and 
talked about fighting a duel : this S[helley] declined on 
principle. Mr Slack however does not object to my making 
free use of many other points stated in the letters — only 
without direct quotation or specification of them. I was 
engaged the whole evening reading these letters aloud, and 
only got through perhaps a half of them : am to resume on 
Wednesday. 

Tuesday, 27 July. — Inserted in the Shelley Memoir such 
particulars, gleaned from the above-named letters, as I am 
empowered to use. 

Wednesday, 28 July. — Went again to Mr Slack's, and 
finished reading the Shelley letters. . . . 

Friday, 30 Jtily. — Am promoted to-day to be Assistant 
Secretary, Excise Branch. Bought a lot of Venetian and art 
photographs and a sunfish.* . . . 

* My Brother had preceded me in buying a stuffed sunfish, which he 
eventually got gilded, and hung up in his drawing-room. I have done 
much the same. 



406 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

PVednesday, 4 Atcgust. — Wrote to Mr Slack, asking 
whether I might copy out, and insert in the Appendix of 
the new Shelley, the three early poems included in the 
correspondence he possesses. — Gabriel is having his various 
poems — such as he values sufficiently — printed, for future use 
in any way he may like. . . . 

Thursday, 19 August. — The first proof of the annotated 
Shelley reached me to-day. It looks as if it were to be in 
two volumes, of compact and substantial aspect. . . . 

Wednesday, 25 August. — A Mr Keningale Cook,* with a 
letter of introduction from Dr Steele,f called, asking my 
advice as to who should publish a volume of poems he has 
ready. I told him I could better form an opinion if I first 
saw the poems, which he is to leave with me shortly. He 
is a prepossessing young man, and evidently a man of 
intelligence. . . . 

Tuesday, 31 August. — . . . Brown has heard it rumoured 
— in reference to the great scandal now turned up regarding 
Byron — that Mrs Leigh was probably not in reality any 
blood-relation to Byron at all, but a daughter of the first Wife 
of Byron's Father (divorced Lady Carmarthen) by some man 
other than Byron's Father. This, if sustainable, would give 
the case a somewhat different complexion. 

Wednesday, i Septejiiber. — Tebbs called, and began talking 
about the volume of MS. poems by Gabriel which he sup- 
pressed at the time of Lizzie's death, and buried in her 
coffin. He says that the coffin could not be opened without 
a " faculty " ; but that he could without any difficulty obtain 
this for G[abriel], should the latter wish at any time to recover 
the poems. I said that I would bear the point in mind, and 
let G[abriel] know of this in case the question should ever be 
in the way of arising. . . . 

Tuesday, 18 September. — Gabriel having announced, by 
letter received yesterday, that he had bought a tame wombat 
now at Chelsea, I went round to see said beast, which is the 
most lumpish and incapable of wombats, with an air of baby 

* This gentleman died, to my great regret, towards 1886. 

t Brother of the Wife of my Cousin Teodorico Pietrocola-Rossetti. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 407 

objectlessness — not much more than half grown, probably. 
He is much addicted to following one about the room, and 
nestling up against one, and nibbling one's calves or trowsers. 
His price was ^8 ; the vendor (Jamrach) saying that he 
could readily dispose of the wombat elsewhere if Gabriel was 
not willing to pay the sum. . . . G[abriel]'s pictures of Lilith 
and Venus are now sent off to their owners (Leyland and 
Mitchell) : Sibylla Palmifera has been a good deal worked 
on of late, and there are some fresh crayon-drawings of Mrs 
Morris, and a girl who sat as playing a lute. Dunn says 
that young Murray * has now started as an artist on his own 
account ; and that Howell has been seeing to the furnishing 
of a new house for Ruskin, who wants it the more particularly 
for proper display of works of art now that he is appointed 
Slade Professor of Fine Arts in Oxford. . . . 

Sunday, 19 September. — Swinburne called — lately back 
from Vichy, where he was staying with Consul Burton, 
V[ictor] Hugo received very graciously the article which 
Swinburne wrote upon L Homme qui Rit, and has expressed 
a very high opinion of the French lyrics scattered among 
S[winburne]'s poems. S[winburne] objects much to Gabriel's 
continual revising of his old poems, and thinks indeed that 
G[abriel]'s whole system of verse-writing is becoming now 
somewhat over-elaborate. He expects to go to Holmwood 
to-morrow. His beautiful Angora cat, given him by Mazzini 
— white with a tabby tail — died lately. It used to sit on 
his head while he was writing. . . . 

Tuesday, 2 1 - September. — Wallis,f whom I met in the 
street, and who is now living at lOA Adelphi Terrace, tells 
me that he possesses a lock of Shelley's hair. — Gabriel 
returned to Chelsea yesterday, and I saw him this evening. 
He looks to me well enough ; but says he has been very 
weak, perspiring excessively, losing sleep, and that his health 
is breaking up. He has done a good deal of poetry — ballads 

* Mr Charles Fairfax Murray. It was through Ruskin, and Howell 
as Ruskin's secretary, that he came into our circle. 

t Mr Henry Wallis the Painter. He had been well acquainted with 
T. L. Peacock. 



408 ROSSETTi PAPERS 

of Helen and of Lilith,* both very fine (the latter not yet 
finished), sonnets, etc. He seems more anxious just now to 
achieve something permanent in poetry than in painting — in 
which he considers that at any rate two living Englishmen, 
Millais and Jones, show a higher innate executive power than 
himself . . . Ruskin called on Gabriel yesterday, and raised 
some question as to Gabriel's joining him in efforts for social 
ameliorations on a systematic scale — which G[abriel] is not 
much minded to. R[uskin] expressed himself gratified with 
the article of mine on him published some months ago in The 
Broadway. . . . 

Monday^ 27 Septeviber. — Gabriel called in Euston Square ; 
read us his poem of Lilith, just completed, and some others. 
Swinburne writes proposing to turn my Mrs Holmes Grey 
into French,! which would indeed be a distinguished honour 
to me. The wombat shows symptoms of some malady of the 
mange-kind, and is attended by a dog-doctor. Hearing 
(from a Mr Doeg of Manchester) that the series of photo- 
graphs kept at the Arundel Society from the portraits 
exhibited at South Kensington includes the Shelley portrait 
by Miss Curran, I went round there, and ordered three copies 
of this photo, and single copies of various others. Miss 
Curran's portrait comes very fair indeed in the photograph, 
and would indeed be worth re-engraving therefrom for the 
forthcoming edition of the poems. 

Tuesday, 28 September. — Saw the wombat again at 
Chelsea : I much fear he shows already decided symptoms 
of the loss of sight which afflicts so many wombats. Gabriel 
writes and works at his poems a good deal, and has not yet 
resumed painting. He seem.s not by any means indisposed 
to publish the poems soon with Ellis, whose printer is doing 
the printing-work. . . . 

Wednesday, 29 September. — Mrs Gilchrist sends me the 
MS. of what she has written concerning Whitman, embody- 
ing and expanding the observations in her letters to me : it 

* The ballads published under the titles Troy Towji and Eden 
Bower. 

t This was never done, I think. 



WILLIAM noSSETTl— DtARV, 1869 409 

will be valuable for the cause — its disposal remains to be 
determined on. . . . 

Thursday, 30 September. — Engaged on proofs of Shelley 
(now at Proinethetis Unbound) and of Scott's book on 
Durer. 

Friday, i October. — Replied to Swinburne's letter, ex- 
pressing my high sense of the honour he would do Mrs 
Holmes Grey by translating it into French, should it suit 
him to do so. . . . 

Sunday, 3 October. — Finished the biographical notice of 
Moore, and wrote to Payne about this and Shelley. I said 
I should probably wish to say, in the first volume of the 
series of Poets, a few words as to my own part in that series. 
Without this, I might be held accountable for the complete- 
ness and accuracy of the editions in a degree which neither 
does nor under the circumstances can properly pertain to me. 
With this Moore notice I finish up the succession of pressing 
work which began on 18 November last with the revision 
of Shelley, and has had no definite intermission since then, 
save my holiday abroad. The Shelley proofs continue to 
engage my attention, and a good deal of less pressing work 
remains on hand. . . . 

Monday, 4 October. — ... I am now reading up the books 
concerning Shelley {Hogg's Life for the while) in order to 
note down all the autobiographical materials — letters etc. — 
for his life. If Payne should not be disposed to publish these 
(as I suggested to him a couple of months or so ago) along 
with my Memoir republished, I may perhaps be disposed to 
incur the expense of having the thing printed for my own 
private satisfaction ; i.e., print, in form similar to my Memoir, 
all the letters and autobiographical passages written by 
Shelley, as far as attainable. The Shelley Poems are now 
advertised by Moxon as forthcoming, giving more than due 
prominence to my Memoir. The advertisement is badly put 
together all through ; and, having occasion to write to Moxon 
in the evening, I proposed a different form of advertise- 
ment. . . . 

Wednesday, 6 October. — Discussed with Uncle Henry some 



410 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

of the points concerning my proposed will, outstanding since 
I went abroad in the Spring. Maria declined to receive the 
reversion of the lease of the house, on the ground that she 
might probably, by the time that contingency occurs, have 
entered a Sisterhood. This is the first time I have heard 
her express such an intention : but I have long foreseen it as 
probable. . . . 

TJiursday^ 7 October. — Nettleship and others dining at 
Chelsea. Gabriel read several of his poems, and expresses 
a distinct intention of soon publishing. Hake (Dr), the 
author of Vates, called on him lately : he also published 
anonymously a year or two ago a volume of poems, TJie 
World'' s Epitaph, which I rather think was sent me at the 
time, and struck me as having a certain superiority. G[abriel] 
thinks him a very capable man, not at all of the self-assertive 
kind. 

Friday, 8 October. — Christina having consulted Dr Jenner 
to-day about a slight discoloration round the eye, he tells 
her that her chest is now very conspicuously better than it 
used to be ; that the case had been somewhat precarious ; 
and that, though now so much better, she should not relax 
in her precautions. . . . 

Monday, ii October. — Garnett returned me my MS. 
Memoir of Shelley, notifying a few useful emendations, but 
speaking of it as very correct in the main, which is gratifying. 
Made the needful revisions, and prepared the MS. to be 
handed in to-morrow to Moxon, for immediate transmission 
to the printers, Sanson & Co., in Edinburgh. Resumed the 
collection of materials for the volumes of Miscellaneous or 
Selected Poems which are set down for forming a part of 
Moxon's cheap series. I see by his prospectus there would 
be six such volumes covering a wide range of selection. . . . 

Wednesday, 13 October. — Swinburne wrote me the other 
day proposing that he and I jointly should give-in our 
adhesion by letter to the Congress of Freethinkers got up by 
Ricciardi (projected as a counterbalance to the CEcumenical 
Council). I very gladly assent, and wrote this evening a draft- 
letter, which I post to Swinburne at Holmwood. — Scott in- 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 411 

forms me that the uncoffining of Gabriel's MS. poems has now 
been effected. 

Friday, 1 5 October. — Dario Rossi (the Genoese publisher 
to whom I confided in 1861 a selection of my Father's poems 
made by myself, and who has ever since let the thing sleep, 
and behaved very objectionably about it till I had been fain 
to give the whole affair up) writes at last, proposing to see 
now to early publication, on certain modified terms. The 
decision on this point belongs strictly to Mamma. . . . 

Monday, 18 October. — Called on Mrs Gilchrist. She 
authorizes me to send to America what she has written on 
W[hitman], to be published in such form as he or 0'C[onnor] 
may approve, but without any public or private avowal of 
her name. — Swinburne sent round to me, for my perusal and 
opinion on one or two alternative expressions, his ruthless 
sonnets for the not-too-speedy death of Louis Napoleon. 
They are very forcible. . . . 

Tuesday, 19 October. — Locker called on me at Somerset 
House to say that Waller in Fleet Street has some Shelley 
autographs to dispose of — not apparently of any exceptional 
interest, but I will look them up. He began talking of the 
Byron-Stowe affair, and is decidedly of opinion that the 
accusation has broken down — an opinion to which I strongly 
tend also. I asked him how about the daughter of Byron 
and Mrs Leigh stated by Mrs Stowe to have been brought 
up by Lady Byron. He says that he has no doubt this is 
a misapprehension as to the parentage. . . . Mr Leigh was 
... a queer character — height about 6 foot 3. My Aunt 
Charlotte tells me that old Deagostini, my Grandfather's 
friend, was Italian master to Miss Milbanke (Lady Byron), 
and thought her singularly cold. — Locker, who has lately 
been in Switzerland with Tennyson, says that the latter is 
very fair as a mountain-climber, which rather surprises me, 
considering the shuffling gait which characterizes his ordi- 
nary walking : he also showed great vigour as an oarsman, 
on being overtaken by a storm on the Lake of Lucerne. 
Locker says (but did not tell me his authority, and I should 
hope the disgraceful story is not absolutely true) that Payne 



412 kOSSETTI PAPERS 

(of Moxon's), after the dissension of his firm with Tenny- 
son, affixed a pair of ass's ears to the portrait of T[enny- 
son] which figures in the Dover Street premises ; also 
(which I had heard before) that he wrote an . . . attack 
on T[ennyson] in The Queen's Messenger. Locker intimated 
that it is hardly decorous in me to do literary work for 
Payne and his firm. For my own part, now that the 
Shelley job is almost out of hand, I don't set any very 
great store by continuing my connexion with the firm 
(limited as it always has been to the simplest business- 
relation) ; but on the other hand I think it is quite pos- 
sible to care too much about the publisher in a literary 
undertaking. If it is desirable that a series of cheap Poets 
should be issued, and that I should work upon it, the 
question of who publishes the series and acts as my pay- 
master is after all a subsidiary one. 

Wednesday, 20 October. — Mamma took lodgings, 59 Burton 
Crescent, for Stillman and his family, who are expected to 
reach London almost daily. Scott called, just back from 
Penkill. He says that Gabriel, when at Penkill, used to be 
composing in an upper room frequently while S[cott] and 
Miss Boyd were in a lower room, and his movements etc. 
used to be audible. After he was gone, the same sounds 
continued distinctly audible to S[cott] and Miss B[oyd], 
and also to the Catholic priest Mr Reid (on at least one 
occasion). Miss B[oyd] was much startled in one instance, 
and went into the upper room to satisfy herself about the 
matter. This is curious.* . . . 

Friday, 22 October. — Received from The Academy a book 
for review — Brisbane's j5"rt;'/^ Years of Alexander Siniih.-\ . . . 

Monday, 25 October. — Stillman came to London to-day, 
expecting to stay about a fortnight en route from Athens 
to America, where he thinks of taking definitely to litera- 
ture. Aali Pacha, who from personal intercourse conceived 
a good opinion of him, wished him to stay in Crete with a 

* This matter is detailed in Scott's Autobiographical Notes. 
t My first connexion (I believe) with The Academy., then recently 
started. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 413 

sort of free commission and general command of funds, for 
the purpose of quieting things down, and acting as miscel- 
laneous referee between the Government and the islanders. 
For some reasons he would have liked to undertake this ; 
but, being unable to persuade the Government to include 
in their amnesty persons who are accused of private acts of 
violence etc. arising out of the insurrection, he considered 
the position untenable, and declined. . . . 

Tuesday, 26 October. — . . . Gabriel called. He has now 
finished copying what he wants out of the unearthed MS. 
book of poems ; and read me the old compositions — Jenny, 
Last Confession, Dante in Verona, Portrait, and Bride- 
Chamber Talk. The latter, already long, would he thinks 
require about as much length again before it could be com- 
pleted on a congruous scale. This he thinks would be too 
lengthy for his forthcoming volume : so he would omit the 
poem from that volume, and finish it up for other eventual 
use, . . . 

Wednesday, 27 October. — Went to Waller's in Fleet 
Street, to enquire about the Shelley autographs which 
Locker mentioned to me a few days back. I find he has 
at present only one, of 18 16, addressed to Bryant, who, he 
says, was a well-known money-lender. It is not of any 
particular biographic interest, so I did not buy it. The 
price is higher than I had expected, £1. 5s. ; and Waller 
says that important letters from Shelley have readily sold 
at from ;^I2 to £14. — Received a long and interesting letter 
from Swinburne, acquiescing in the combined draft of the 
Ricciardi letter ; notifying the forthcoming publication, in 
the Fortnightly, of his sonnets against Louis Napoleon 
(which I deprecate as too hard-hearted) ; etc. . . . 

Saturday, 6 November. — , . . Conway . . . has lately re- 
turned from Russia. About Moscow, he says, one may see 
any number of perfectly naked women bathing in public, 
and nobody thinks any harm of it. . . . 

Sunday, 7 November. — Went to the Spartalis',* to meet 
there Stillman and Dilberoglue : there were also several 
* Mr Spartali was at this time Consul-General for Greece. 



414 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

others — Skinner, the newspaper-correspondent lately in Crete, 
Captain Pirn, who had to do also with the Island, etc. Miss 
S[partali] showed me the water-colour she is now engaged 
on — a girl by a window looking out on a Venetian Lagoon* 
Nolly Brown (a hitherto unknown poet) has written a sonnet 
to it, which Miss S[partali] tells me is very fair. . . . 

Monday, 8 November. — Gabriel, who called in Euston 
Square, complains very much of a constant shaking of the 
hand etc. with corresponding internal sensations. He sup- 
poses it to be a nervous disease, and even has some appre- 
hensions of impending paralysis : the symptoms have now 
been going on several days, but don't seem particularly to 
affect his steadiness of hand in drawing or writing. He 
has consulted in writing Marshall, who orders iron and 
other tonics. This certainly seems enough to make G[abriel] 
anxious ; but I should hope the inconvenience will prove 
temporary. The poor wombat died the other day after some 
spasmodic symptoms : one more instance of the extra- 
ordinary ill-luck that has attended G[abriel]'s animals. 

Tuesday, gi November. — Wrote to Rossi, the Genoese 
bookseller, proposing to cede to him for ten years from that 
day the right of publication of my Father's selected poems — 
not for ever, as he proposes. , . . 

Friday, 12 November. — Moxon sends me a letter addressed 
to him by a Mr Catty, saying that he possesses, and would 
like to include in the re-edition, certain poems by Shelley, 
as yet unpublished, given by S[helley] to Catty's Mother, 
then a Miss Stacey : he sends a specimen of one, which, 
though not highly finished, seems beyond suspicion. This 
will be a great advantage. . . . 

Sunday, 14 November. — . . . Brown called on me in the 
evening, . . . Some talk on questions of religion ; and I find 
— more definitely than I knew it before — that B[rown] is 
very little of a theist : he seems to think that the intellect 
which regulates the world is simply the collective intellect 
of man. 

* The water-colour is now in the possession of my Daughter Helen. 
It was shown in the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI- DIARY, 1869 415 

Monday, 15 November. — Dined at Brown's, with Miss 
Spartali, Stillman, and Gabriel. The chief raison detre of 
the gathering was for G[abriel] to read some of his poems 
to Miss S[partali], which he did : Last Cojifession^ Lilith, 
Dante, some minor poems. . . . Saw Brown's very fine water- 
colour of The Entonibinent, now far advanced. Also the Don 
Jnan, which is in some respects about his finest work ; and 
monochrome of King Lear and his Daughters. Miss Spartali 
sits for Haidee. . . . 

Friday, 19 N'ovember. — Finished transcribing Mrs Gil- 
christ's paper on Whitman ; wrote a few introductory words 
to it, and the letter for O'Connor ; and sent it all on to her 
for final consideration. . . . 

Sunday, 21 November. — . . . Began for The Portfolio 
my promised article on Hughes, Windus, and Miss Spartali : 
I shall add the younger Browns, and a word about Goodwin, 
as coming in, along with Miss S[partali], in the character of 
pupils of Brown. 

Monday, 22 November. — Called at Mr Catty's, to enquire 
about the Shelley poems he offered for publication. It 
seems that the Mr C[atty] who made this offer is now at 
Brighton ; but his Brother, Colonel C[atty], had got the 
packet ready for delivery to me, and was proposing to write 
to me about it forthwith. He was in a hurry, when I called, 
to go out and keep an engagement ; but received me very 
cordially, and I arranged to call again to-morrow to take 
possession of the packet. — Dined at Chelsea with Tebbs and 
Knight,* who came more particularly to hear some of 
Gabriel's poems. . . . G[abriel] has made some additions to 
the Dante poem etc. : has not yet resumed painting to any 
extent. 

Tuesday, 23 November. — Called again on Colonel Catty, 
and received from him the pocket-book presented by Shelley 
to the then Miss S. Stacey (Mrs Catty), and a letter from Mrs 
Sh[elley] and her husband to Miss S. Stacey, The former 
contains a new poem. Time long past, and two old ones ; the 

* Joseph Knight, the Dramatic Critic and Editor oi Notes and Queries, 
who became one of Dante Rossetti's biographers. 



416 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

letter contains the Lines on a Dead Violet. The other un- 
published poem, of which two stanzas were sent to Moxon in 
the first instance, still remains to be produced — also the copy 
of The Indian Sej'enade. Mrs Catty is still living. Colonel 
C[atty] seems a very kind-hearted man, of open, courteous 
nature. He feels a pride in associating his name with 
Shelley. . . . 

Thursday, 25 November. — Dined at Scott's, with Dr 
Littledale etc. Dr L[ittledale] is going to the Roman 
Council, as a sort of medium of information between the 
High-Church party here and the Catholic dignitaries. He 
does not seem to expect that the result of the Council will 
be any extensive going-over of any sort of Protestants to 
Rome; he says that such conversions from the English 
Church are now very much fewer than some years ago — the 
aspirations of the more Roman-tending Anglicans being now 
fairly met in their own Church. He believes Dollinger and 
Klee to be authors of the famous pamphlet by " Janus." 
Miss Boyd returned to town to-day. Scott says that Swin- 
burne, some little while back at Chelsea, mentioned the then 
forthcoming letter which he and I were to send to Ricciardi ; 
and that both Scott and Gabriel and Nettleship expressed 
their willingness to see about signing it as well.* This is 
wholly new to me ; I was not so much as aware that any of 
these men had heard of the letter. 

Friday, 26 November. — Received the remaining Shelley 
verses from Mr Catty — " Thou art fair." . . , 

Saturday, 27 November. — . . . Gabriel (who made the 
other night a slight sketch for the binding of the Shelley) 
promised to put it into such shape as would be available for 
the binder's purposes. . . . 

Friday, 3 December. — Gabriel brought round his design 
for binding the Shelley.f It would look very nice ; but is, I 

* It appears that the letter was not eventually signed by any persons 
other than Swinburne and myself : see No. 265. 

t I am not sure that this binding-design (the look of which I don't 
now remember) was ultimately used for any purpose. It does not appear 
to be the same design which was adopted for Forman's edition of Shelley : 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 ill 

suspect, too elaborate for Moxon's purpose, both as regards 
expense and time. He says he still feels very unwell : was 
intending to see about renting Mrs Gilchrist's little house at 
Shottermill, but, on writing to her, learned that she had let 
it to some one else only a few hours before. . . . 

Sunday, 5 December. — , , . After an interval of thirteen 
months or so I resumed this evening my work for the Chaucer 
Society — translation of the passages in Boccaccio's Filostrato 
which Chaucer has utilized in his Troylns. . . . 

Friday, 10 December. — Gabriel showed me Hake's eccentric 
poem of Madeline. He is himself bent (and I think very 
wisely) on getting out his volume of poems in the Spring ; 
and will with this view forego writing any additional poems 
for it, beyond one. As to this one, he is in some doubt 
whether to make it The Or-chard-Pit, which he schemed out 
at Penkill, or an invention that has lately occurred to him of 
The Doom of the Sirens .-"^ he inclines to this latter. He 
might perhaps treat it in the form of a choral drama, but 
more probably as a narrative. His proposed subject of The 
San Greal he has laid aside, waiting to see what Tennyson 
will have made of the same theme : Tlie Harrowing of Hell ^ 
he means to treat from the point of view of love-passion — as 
if the redemption wrought by Christ were to be viewed as an 
elevation of the conception of love from pleasure into passion, 
hence entailing the redemption from hell of Adam and Eve, 
David and Bathsheba, etc. etc. I very much question whether 
the ideas involved in this scheme are not self-conflicting, and 
expressed this view to him. . . . 

Sunday, 12 December. — Gabriel has now consulted Sir 
William Jenner, who says that his state of health requires 
careful attention — no spirit-drinking, going to bed not later 
than midnight, and a country-life without regular professional 
work for the next six months. This corresponds pretty 

that (I understand) had been intended by my Brother for E. S. Dallas's 
book, The Gay Science. 

* My Brother did not after all write either of these poems : the prose 
abstracts of them appear in his Collected Works. 

t Neither The San Greal nor The Harrowing of Hell was written. 

2 D 



418 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

nearly with what I have said all along — that half a year's 
travelling would be the best thing. G[abriel] has also again 
seen Bowman the oculist, who says that the eyes are in the 
same state as previously — not organically wrong, . . . 

Monday, 13 December. — Replied to Mr J. H. Dixon, who 
has sent me some (not very useful) emendations for Shelley. 
If I remember right, it was a communication of his, 
printed in N[otes] and Q[ueHes], which first set me off writing 
to that paper about Shelley, and thus eventually led to my 
re-editing the Poems. 

Tuesday, 14 December. — . . . Moxons say that Gabriel's 
design for the binding would be too expensive, and could only 
be used for an edition de luxe : as such, they apparently con- 
template adopting it. 

Wednesday, 15 December. — Dr Hake (whom I meet for 
the first time) dined with two or three others at Chelsea. He 
has been reading part of my Father's Amor Platonico, and is 
considerably struck with the views therein expressed as to 
the unreality of Beatrice, Laura, etc. At Gabriel's instance 
he has now cut out Petrarch and Laura (under those names) 
from his poem of Madeline. . . . Hake is sixty. — The poor 
wombat has now been stuffed, and figures in the entrance-hall : 
his " effect " is not satisfactory. 

TJiursday, 16 December. — As Gabriel prefers to get back 
his design for binding the Shelley, ... I wrote . . . asking 
that it may be returned to G[abriel] or myself. . . . 

Wednesday, 22 Decejnber. — Received an interesting letter 
from Whitman, relative to the extracts I sent over in the 
summer from Mrs G[ilchrist]'s letters, which he regards as, 
under all the conditions, the most " magnificent eulogium " he 
has yet received. This letter must have been written before 
the complete papers which I posted towards the end of 
November had been seen by Whitman. Two copies of the 
last photograph taken from him are to reach me. . . . 

Wednesday, 29 December. — Received the last proofs of the 
Shelley, which occupied me till about 1.30 A.M. . . . 



W. J. STILLMAN, 1869 419 



211. — W. J. Stillman to William Rossettl 

Athens. 
zi January 1869. 

My dear Rossetti, — ... As I foresaw in case of the 
failure of Coroneos to go to Crete, the insurrection is dead or 
in its last gasp — not from the capture of Petropoulaki but 
from his going. When the Committee told me that Petro- 
poulaki was going, I replied that the insurrection would be 
dead by their New Year (January 13th). This expedition was 
intended to brusque affairs, and bring on a pressure which 
would justify the Greek Government before the Greek people 
in abandoning Crete, which they had already decided to do 
by resolution of the King, personally. 

I have done all I could ; and, if I could have had Coroneos 
sent over, the insurrection would have gone through the 
winter triumphantly. But we have failed from destiny, not 
from our own want of resolution ; from treason of others, not 
of ourselves. 

And now my " occupation's gone " ; not only figuratively 
but literally, as I have got into the bad graces of our present 
Government which is philo-Turk {i.e. Seward, Johnson, etc.) ; 
and the Consulate will probably be abolished this session, 
throwing me out of service. . . . 

I am, in fine weather, amusing myself by taking a series 
of photos of the Acropolis ; not only picturesque, but to show 
the technical characteristics of Greek architecture. It will 
comprise about twenty small views. . . . — Yours affection- 
ately, 

W. J. Stillman. 



420 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



212. — Dr Garnett to William Rossettl 

British Museum. 
5 February 1869. 

My dear Rossetti, — ... I would cheerfully afford any 
information respecting matters of fact you might wish for, 
and [furnish you] with my opinion on any doubtful or obscure 
passages of Shelley's life. A true admirer of Shelley ought 
to be above all petty jealousy, and I assure you that your 
undertaking his biography will give me nothing but pleasure. 

I did not see your communications to Notes and Queries 
until some time after they were completed. ... I should be 
much obliged if you would let me see the alterations you pro- 
pose introducing into the text, or suggesting in notes, before 
they are printed. If I find that I have any emendations by 
me I will send you them. . . . — Yours very truly, 

Richard Garnett. 



213. — Madox Brown to William Rossettl 

37 FiTZROY Square. 
9 February 1869. 

My dear William, — I meant last night to have spoken to 
you respecting something your Brother told me respecting 
illustrations required for a general edition of the Poets, but I 
forgot. 

Thinking the matter over, I have come to the conclusion 
that I should like to undertake the whole in a bundle if Payne 
can be got to give them — for I have nothing else to do at 
present, and they do say things are to be worse before they 
are better in the picture-selling line. — Ever yours sincerely, 

Ford Madox B. 



MADOX BROWN, 1869 421 



214. — Dr Gaknett to William Rossettl 

British Museum. 

15 February 1869. 

My dear Rossetti, — ... As soon as I can possibly find time 
I will copy out for you all the fragments which were considered 
too imperfect for publication in the Relics, for incorporation 
with the latter or publication in the Appendix, as you may 
deem best. You will find some of them very interesting. . . . 

I suppose you will include the rifacimejtto of Queen Mab, 
entitled The Dcemon of the World, in the Appendix. Have 
you a copy of it? It was published along with Alastor in 
1 8 16, and has not, so far as I know, been reprinted. If you 
have not access to it, I will transcribe it for you from the 
Museum copy. . . . — Yours very truly, 

Richard Garnett. 



215. — Madox Brown to William Rossettl 

37 FiTZROY Square. 
18 Febritary 1869. 

My dear William, — Mr Payne's scheme of an illustrated 
edition of the British Poets is a grand one, and of a kind 
that ought certainly to enlist the sympathies of our more 
thoughtful artists. 

I do not however so readily see how it is to be made a 
cheap one, or even a very moderate one. If the best artists 
in the country are to be pitted against each other, none of 
them in particular will feel much interest in the undertaking 
except in so far as their own individual few designs are 
concerned. They will each feel a nervous apprehension lest 
their own works should appear less successful than the 
others. They will give themselves trouble — take time, delay 
the work, and necessarily require payment in accordance. 



422 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

It will be a repetition of the Illustrated Tennyson. Each 
artist thinking only of his own drawings, the whole will be, 
like that celebrated undertaking, wanting in that ensemble 
and uniformity so much required by the public in any work 
of the kind ; and gradually the whole, growing beyond the 
publisher's first intention or powers of control, will either 
remain a continual hazardous worry on his hands, or have to 
stop short half-way of the goal. This however might be 
avoided by restricting the number of artists to a practicable 
limit ; selecting them of a congenial turn of thought ; and 
settling beforehand very strictly the size, nature, and style, 
of the illustrations. I agree myself entirely with Payne's 
notion that wood-engraving ptiblicatiojis have begun to pall 
upon the tastes of the more fastidious and intelligent of the 
public. The style of thing I would myself have proposed I 
intended should avoid the commonplace quality, by means 
of greater dignity and simplicity of style, and especially by 
a sustained uniformity of imaginative and intellectual faculty, 
versus the picturesque black-and-white dexterous unmeaning- 
nesses that are now prevalent. 

The notion however of substituting steel-plate for wood 
is to my mind by no means a bad one ; only I don't quite 
understand what Mr Payne means by etchings — does he not 
rather mean a kind of slight engraving ? Etching is a rough, 
eminently artistic sort of work, which may be admirable in 
the hands of some men, but which must sink into bathos at 
once if divorced from the hand of the first designer. A very 
rough sort of drawing may look well skilfully engraved, but 
the effectiveness of the drawing is the very quality that takes 
most time. Finish without strong effect is less laborious of 
attainment. As to the selection of the subjects, it would be 
difficult for any one but an artist of intellect to do that. 
However, yourself being so much mixed up with art would 
be an assurance that the work would be safer entrusted to 
you than to most people. The proposed vignettes and tail- 
pieces, unless entrusted to some one who is a thorough 
master of ornamental art, might very much endanger the 
dignity of appearance of the edition — but might add much 



F. T. PALGRAVE, 1869 423 

to the beauty of it if done as Holbein might be expected 
to have done, for instance. 

So much for my ideas on the subject, jotted down. I do 
not mean to infer, however, that I should object to take part 
in the undertaking in the event of these suggestions' not 
prevailing. I did object to take part in the Tennyson work ; 
but that was because Moxon came to me late, when I should 
have had to hurry over the work at a disadvantage to my 
reputation in comparison with the other men engaged. 

In conclusion, you may inform Mr Payne that I shall be 
very glad to help in this most laudable undertaking, and 
trust that he will find me as reasonably disposed as to re- 
muneration as any other of my fraternity and compeers. 

I wish we might have been present to hear with you the 
Cantata from your Sister's Cornfield songs ; and trust it will 
turn out a success for her and Macfarren, who is so much 
respected by the English musicians. — As ever, yours, 

Ford Madox Brown. 



216. — F. T. PALGRAVE to William Rossetti. 

[Mr Palgrave here deprecates my doing what I never 
proposed to do — i.e., to make alterations in the text of Shelley 
without specifying them in my notes. I replied explaining 
my real intention, and he then withdrew all the substantial 
part of his objection. I shall re-produce a part of his second 
letter (No. 217), although this passage and others have been 
published in the interesting Memorial of Mr Palgrave which 
his Daughter brought out in 1899]. 

5 York Gate, Regent's Park, 
23 February 1869. 

Dear Rossetti, — The work you have undertaken is of 
such great importance to our literature (and is also so certain 
to be closely scanned) that I hope you will not mind my 
writing to you again about it 



424 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

What you aim at is a monumental or classical text of 
Shelley. I agree that this may properly include whatever he 
published {e.g. the Nicholson poems), with as many of the 
unpublished as suit your discretion as Editor. . . . 

In regard to the text of such an edition, I feel confident 
that my opinion will be shared by all who care for our litera- 
ture in general, and for Shelley in particular. Your duty is, 
in regard (i) to all things printed by Shelley, (2) to all things 
for which you recur to the MS. (as the poems first so printed 
by his Wife, or any ones not yet published), to give the text 
precisely as you find it ; but with the freest power of placing 
your corrections and conjectures below. 

I am sure that I am right in saying that this rule will not 
only save you much trouble, but will also save you much 
future annoyance, and earn you the gratitude of future 
English readers. 

You are wholly in error in regard to what I did in TJie 
Golden Treasury ; as I noted every omission or change in the 
text. If you ask, "Why did you then not place your correc- 
tion in the notes?" — my reply is that books are published 
under different laws, as they have different objects. . . . — 
Ever truly yours, 

F. T. Palgrave. 



217. — F. T. Palgrave to William Rossetti. 

5 York Gate. 
25 February 1869. 

Dear Rossetti, — Your note gives me a new insight into 
your work, and does away with nine-tenths of what I said. 
I had inferred from your first letter that your changes of 
text were not, necessarily and uniformly, to be accompanied 
with an explanatory note. 

The main point is that a reader shall be able to know 
precisely what the author wrote or printed : if this be done 



DR GARNETT, 1869 425 

once for all, it is more a matter of simple taste than any- 
thing" whether obvious errors shall be corrected above or 
below. 

I have no doubt that you are right in reprinting all that 
has been printed. . . . — Ever truly yours, 

F. T. Palgrave. 



218. — Dr Garnett to William Rossettl 

[With reference to the curious surname " Daphne," I may 
remark that, being at Otley in the autumn of 1890, I noticed 
this name over a shop-front.] 

4 St Edmund's Terrace. 
I March 1869. 

My dear Rossetti, — . . . The reference to the Castle of 
Petrella is in a book entitled De Paris a Sybaris, by Palustre 
de Montifaut, Paris, 1868. He does not describe the place, 
and does not seem to have examined it, but says, in a letter 
dated Aquila, March 1 3th, 1 867 : " En passant ce matin pres du 
Chateau de Petrella, oil s'accomplit la sanglante tragedie, j'ai 
toutefois voulu evoquer ces monstrueux souvenirs," — and then 
goes off into the Cenci story. As he had seen the Castle " ce 
matin," it must be near Aquila ; and, as Aquila is close to the 
frontier of the Papal States, I suppose we may infer that it is 
just across the border. 

I have just read, in the current number of The Getitlenian's 
Magazine (p. 45 1), an anecdote which you should by all means 
make a note of when you come to " My Aunt Nicholson " : — 
" Within the memory of a literary friend, this startling 
announcement was to be seen within the window of a public 
house at the corner of Clare Market : ' To be seen within, the 
fork belonging to the knife with which Margaret Nicholson 
attempted to stab his Majesty, George III.'" This is nearly 
as good as that other exhibition of " the skull of Oliver Crom- 
well when he was a little boy." By the way, Margaret's 



426 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Grandson is or was lately Parish-clerk of Otley in Yorkshire, 
under the name of Daphne. Her Son changed his name to 
avoid obloquy, and, being a gardener, hit upon the classical 
appellation aforesaid. — Yours ver)- truly, 

Richard Garnett. 



219. — Barone KiRKur to William Rossettl 

[That is a well-known Shelleian anecdote " about the 
parson who heard the name of Shelley" etc. I did, in 1869, 
ask Trelawny about it ; and found, rather to my surprise, that 
he did not believe that the incident had ever occurred. It 
has ever since remained to me one of the unexplained 
mysteries of Shelley's life, or of his inventive faculty.] 

Florence, 2 Ponte Vecchio. 
2 March 1869. 

My dear Rossetti, — Bravo ! I am glad you are going to 
revive Shelley. I have written to Trelawny, and told him 
that I advised you to consult him. He was his greatest frie7td, 
and can tell you much about him. Do you know Trelawny's 
two works. The Younger Son, and Recollections of Shelley and 
Byron ? The former was written before he knew Shelley ; 
the latter is full of him, and he can tell you much more than 
what he printed. T[relawny] knew your Father, and must 
remember him well. I have seen five editions of The Younger 
So7i in English and French. It had a great success in France. 
I remember some critic, quoting him, said : " Le joyeux et 
terrible Trelawny, dont les memoires ne le cedent en rien a 
ceux de son ami Byron, si injustement mutiles par un deposi- 
taire infidele." I am sorry to see by T[relavvny]'s letters that 
he is getting melancholy — age, no doubt, though he is younger 
than me ; but I make it a rule to chase the blue devils, and 
my spirit-friends have made it easy. . . . 

I have had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of 
Mr Pietrocola-Rossetti, and I am charmed with him. PVank, 



BARONE KIRKUP, 1869 427 

spirited, and amiable. He knew much of your Father, 
cherishes his memory, and admires his genius and learning. 
I will show him the letters I have saved. There are hints in 
them, especially towards the last, in which I think he alludes 
to his final discoveries ; which he said he saved for the end of 
his Beatrice^ most likely destroyed by . . . Aroux — whose 
disgraceful book nobody cares for. I have got his presenta- 
tion-copy with an inscription to Ste. Beuve. The leaves were 
not cut open ! . . . 

Ask Trelawny about the parson who heard the name of 
Shelley at the Post Office, and knocked him down because he 
heard that he was an atheist. S[helley] was very delicate, 
and the parson very stout. Trelawny was long hunting for 
him to pay him off. 

Does Swinburne still intend to write on the subject of 
Landor? . . . 

I have been reading Taylor's Life of my old friend Haydon. 
It is a most melancholy history. Eastlake told me it was 
intensely interesting. So it is to us who knew him and most 
of the people mentioned in it, I told Taylor when he was 
here that I had many of Haydon's letters ; and, as he 
published a second edition, they would have been useful, as 
they were very confidential, and there are some sketches of 
his head, very like him. He was the first designer in 
Europe ; as I ascertained when I went to Paris, and made 
the acquaintance of David and all his school, Girodet, Gerard, 
Gros, Prudhon, Guerin, etc. As for Ingres and Scheffer, they 
remained far behind, Horace Vernet and Delaroche were 
good in their way, but that was limited. But for profound 
knowledge of the figure Haydon was beyond them all. . . . — 
Ever yours, 

S. KiRKUP. 

P.S. — Three times I have written to Browning, to get my 
letters and papers of Landor from Forster, . . , There are 
scraps in Latin and English, not published except in news- 
papers, that it would be difficult if not impossible to meet 
with. I could tell S[winburne] much about L[andor]'s affairs, 



428 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

and his treatment b}- his family, and parsons and parsons' 
wives in England etc. . . . 



220. — James Smetham to Dante Rossetti. 

[In this amusing letter there is a passage which seems to 
imply that Smetham had, in one form or another, produced a 
" portrait " of Rossetti. I can only say that I have not now 
any sort of recollection of it. The original letter closes with 
a humorous sketch of Brown and Rossetti, under the guise 
of owls, looking at Smetham's pictures, with Smetham 
cowering in the background. To the sketch is appended 
the motto which is here given in a note.*] 

1 Park Lane, Stoke Newington. 
8 March 1869. 

My dear Gabriel, — Friday will do as well as any other 
evening. ... I shall be most glad to see Brown ; though, 
with two such stunners staring at my pictures at once, I 
don't know what's to become of my nerves. I must say 
beforehand that any proposals amounting to a change of 
the foreground and an entire reconstruction of the background 
are too late. . . . 

I am glad your friends are so satisfied with your portrait. 
Whether the next is to be handsomer or uglier depends on 
what you say as to my work. Every stricture writes a 
wrinkle on your azure brow — every word of candid praise 
cosmeticizes you. 

I am much obliged to your Brother for his recommendation 
to Moxon. . , . — Affectionately yours, 

Jas. Smetham. 

* "Well, Brother Gabriel," said the Brown Owl, "but this is abominable !" — 
" Hoot mon," replied Owl Gabriel, " dinna j'e " etc. — (See Bad Words for March 
1869.) 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869 429 



221. — William Rossetti to William Allingham. 

12 March [1869]. 

Dear Allingham, — ... I am in an advanced stage of the 
Shelley process, and will indulge myself in a few details. 

The Edition will present the following arrangement : — 

Prefatory Matter (Mrs Shelley's and my own). 

Long Poems, arranged according to dates (including 
Julian and Maddalo, EpipsycJiidion, and various others 
hitherto mixed up with short ones). 

Miscellaneous Poems, according to years. 

Fragments, according to dates (includes all fragments, 
even to so important a work as Triiiniph of Life). 

Translations, according to authors. 

Appendix, according to dates (Juvenile poems, variations, 
etc. I omit nothing I can discover, however rubbishy.) 

My own notes. 

I have now done, broadly speaking, the whole of the 
above, and have begun giving the volume its final reading. 
A few extras, however, are coming in at the close : — Some 
scraps extracted by Garnett, and as yet unpublished, and 
(in my own hands, received from him) one of Shelley's MS. 
books, which contains, I find, a considerable bulk of Charles 
the First as yet unprinted, and which I am deciphering — 
no easy job. Some notes and verifications are still needed ; 
and the whole Memoir has to be written. For this, however, 
I have made notes from almost all the books needing to be 
consulted ; and have also recopied the notes in a tabulated 
form (a heavy task), so as to see what the various authorities 
say on the same particular points. ... I have now been 
sticking to it — I may say incessantly — since the middle of 
November ; and I know the time has been fully occupied, 
though possibly the results may seem meagre. 

I did speak to Browning about the work one even- 
ing in January that he was at our house. He responded 
cordially, but did not enter into the subject in the way of 



430 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

suggesting or discussing any special point of treatment. . . . 
— Yours, 

W. M. ROSSETTI. 

P.S. — I should have said that Garnett assured me the 
Shelley family give full permission for my making what I can 
of the MS. book now in my hands. 



222. — Robert Browning to Dante Rossetti. 

[This note refers to T/ie Fovtniglitly Review^ and its then 
Editor, Mr John Morley.] 

19 Warwick Crescent, Upper Westbourne Terrace. 
20 March 1869. 

Dear Rossetti, — You know my old ways : I hope, grati- 
tude to so kind a critic as Mr Morley is one of them — but 
indeed it is not inconsistent with an impossibility of doing 
what he proposes, and what, for his sake, I wish I could do. 
Were I ever so disposed, I should be hampered much, if not 
altogether hindered, by a certain number of refusals to earlier 
applicants, who had my apologies along with the assurance 
that I should write for nobody. 

It is hardly with a grace — though the opportunity tempts 
— that I speak here of what you wrote this month, or at least 
printed : and, as for all the " other precious, precious jewels " 
that you made me bright with in your letters, I can't speak 
of them now nor at any time — nor would you wish it. — Ever 
affectionately yours, 

Robert Browning. 



DR GARNETT, 1869 431 



223. — Philip Hamerton to William Rossettl 

Pre Charmoy, Autun, Saone et Loire. 
21 March 1869. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — I was as dissatisfied as you could 
be with the title Amateur iox our periodical. . . . Since then 
I have hit upon The Portfolio. . . . 

I was rather surprised that you should seem to apprehend 
any interference on my part with what you might write. All 
that I should require of contributors would be that they 
would give me notice (before writing an article) of the subject 
chosen, and the length ; in order that, if another contributor 
had chosen the same subject, or the length were inconvenient, 
I might have the opportunity of saying so. As to opinion, 
all intelligent men differ ; it is only stupid people who agree, 
and they only agree because their opinions are secondhand 
and come from the same source. You may occasionally 
differ from my views ; but this does not in any way lessen 
my respect for you, or disincline me to publish your papers. 
As to correcting your papers so as to bring them into har- 
mony with my views, I must say that I am wholly incapable 
of anything of the kind ; that I would not stand it myself if 
it were attempted with me (which it never has been) ; and 
that, if I ask any one to contribute, it is that I believe him 
to be worth listening to — and consequently should wish him 
to speak his own mind, and not mine. . . . — Very truly 
yours, 

P. G. Hamerton. 



224. — Dr Garnett to William Rossetti. 

[" The old lady " (Miss Rumble) did not, as it turned out, 
wholly deserve companionship with Beelzebub. Dr Garnett 
made her acquaintance a few years later on, and she allowed 



432 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

him to transcribe a very interesting letter from Shelley (No. 
1 02 in Forman's edition), and a letter from Mary Shelley 
relating to the Poet's death. She possessed transcripts of 
other letters from Shelley and Mary to the Gisbornes (all 
or nearly all of them printed) ; also the walnut-bowl, men- 
tioned in the verse-letter to Mrs Gisborne, which Miss 
Rumble eventually bequeathed to the British Museum. 
There were moreover copious journals by Mr Gisborne, 
beginning towards 1824. The MSS. were sold by auction 
after Miss Rumble's death, and were purchased by Sir 
Percy Shelley.] 

4 St Edmund's Terrace. 
22 March 1869. 

My dear Rossetti, — I have heard from Miss Blind's friend 
at Plymouth, and send you a transcript of the most material 
part of his letter. There seems nothing left but to com- 
mend the old lady to Beelzebub, which I do for my part 
with singular cordiality. It is fair to say however that the 
papers destroyed probably related for the most part to Mrs 
Gisborne's affairs during her first marriage, which would 
account for Mr Reveley's anxiety to get them out of the 
way. The Shelleys have numbers of similar documents, 
which I have never had time to inspect. . . . — Yours very 
truly, 

Richard Garnett. 

" At the death of the Gisbornes she (Miss Rumble) in- 
herited their household-effects and some small legacy ; and 
they left in her hands large masses of letters and manu- 
scripts of various kinds, which she was to keep until the 
return of Mr Reveley from abroad. She kept them, and 
on his return communicated the fact to him ; but he was 
no Shelley enthusiast, and told her to destroy them, as he 
did not want them ; and I believe they were nearly all 
burned. What remained she sent to Mr Reveley some 
time ago at his own request ; and she retains nothing now 
but a few sheets of autographs, and a few relics connected 
with Shelley. She has also still a few letters which she 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869 433 

has shown to me in confidence, but positively refuses to 
let them be seen by any one else, as she is under a promise 
to that effect to Mr Reveley. I may say however that 
they do not throw much light upon anything. 

T. W. Freckelton. 



225. — Dante Rossetti to Professor Norton. 

[In consequence of this request Rossetti re-obtained 
possession of the water-colour of Clerk Saunders. After his 
death it came into my hands : and from them it passed into 
those of Mr C. Fairfax Murray.] 

16 Cheyne Walk. 
19 April 1869. 

My dear Norton, — You expressed a kind intention of 
visiting my studio by daylight. . . . 

I have long wished to make a proposal to you. It would 
be a great satisfaction to me to possess the drawing you have 
by my late Wife, of Clej'k Samiders, to add to those of hers 
which are now mine, and which every year teaches me to 
value more and more as works of genius, even apart from 
other personal interest to me. None would ever have been 
parted with, of course, had we not then hoped that these little 
things were but preludes to much greater ones — a hope which 
was never to be realized. I would not offer you a profit on 
the drawing, as you would probably not accept that ; but 
would esteem it a great favour if you would let me have it at 
its original price — 35 guineas, if I recollect; — or would, if you 
preferred it, make a chalk drawing of Mrs Norton, life-size, of 
the kind for which I am in the habit of charging 60 to 80 
guineas. This I should do with the greatest pleasure, and 
consider myself still greatly your debtor. — Ever yours, 

D. G. Rossetti. 



2 E 



434 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



226. — William Rossetti to Frances Rossettl 

Hotel de l'Europe, Piazza Santa Trinita, Florence. 
19 April [1869]. 

Dear Mamma, — ... In Rome we saw a good deal, 
especially in the way of antiquities and the leading monu- 
ments of art. Tupper is a persistent traveller, and very ready 
— most agreeably so — to admire whatever really deserves it : 
he is also most friendly and good-humoured. Unfortunately for 
him, and in a minor degree for me, his health has been very 
seriously out of order, interfering with our seeing some things 
at all, or others comfortably. At times his weakness was 
extreme, and great energy must have been demanded to 
enable him to do as much as he did ; his cough and chest 
plagued him. . . . His cough and health were so bad that he 
got to think Rome an unfavourable air : we therefore left 
slightly earlier than we had intended, and came on hither to 
Florence, passing through and looking at Foligno, Spello, and 
Assisi (glorious country, and some wonderful things in 
mediaeval art). Since Saturday week he had been stronger, 
and somewhat less bad in the chest and throat : but this 
morning he seemed half dead with spasms. They seized him 
at midnight, and went on incessantly till about noon, half 
choking him at every breath ; to lie down any part of the 
night was impossible. Of all this I knew nothing till about 
7.30 A.M., when he came into my bedroom looking like a 
spectre. I had to run off for a Doctor ; and at length one 
was procured who has assuaged the spasms, and perhaps (I 
have no great confidence in it) Tupper may be capable of 
moving about again the day after to-morrow. I am writing 
this in his bedroom, where he is half dozing and half gasping 
— 4 o'clock P.M. . . . 

Hunt is here — a good deal better than when he left 
London — and has been doing everything friendly, especially 
at this Tupperian crisis. He ought to have gone to-day to 
Venice, but proposes postponing it till to-morrow. I have 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869 435 

also seen a good deal of Theodoric and his Wife, who are 
most cordial and affectionate. . . . Theodoric (who has just 
called, and even asks Tupper to go to him and be nursed by 
his Wife) joins in affectionate messages. — Your affectionate 

William. 

Poor old Kirkup has been very unwell, and looks almost 
moribund : but I am told his power of recovering is great. . . . 



227. — William Rossetti to Frances Rossettl 

Hotel de l'Europe, Florence. 
21 Aprt7[iS6g]. 

Dear Mamma, — Poor Tupper's illness goes on fearfully 
amiss : I very much fear it will end fatally, and at no distant 
date. Two Doctors have seen him, and call the disease 
nervous contraction of the muscles of the lower belly, conse- 
quent on a cold : in fact, much the same thing as tetanus, but 
not of the kind that ends in lockjaw. His sufferings are 
appalling, and the Doctor who has attended the case through- 
out says he never saw such fortitude, nor so extraordinary an 
instance of the disease. Yesterday I wrote to the Brother 
George Tupper (4 Barge Yard, Bucklersbury) : next tele- 
graphed that he had better come : finally, at Tupper's express 
urgency, telegraphed that /le is not to come, but a Sister or 
Cousin may do so. When any one comes — if indeed poor 
Tupper does not die before, which I fear is the more probable 
issue — I shall be free to return to London : till then, of 
course not. . . . The kind attentions and co-operation of 
Hunt, and of Theodoric and his Wife, exceed my powers of 
description, and are of course a great relief to me. . . . 

I know you will all feel for poor Tupper and his family, 
and also for me. But believe me that, as far as I am concerned, 
apart from the distress of Tupper's imminent danger and 
miserable sufferings, I am as well and strong as ever I was 
in my life; and have no reason to doubt that I shall so con- 



43G ROSSETTI PAPERS 

tinue up to the time when I see you again after a journey 
that seemed to promise great gratification, but which now 
threatens to end in a calamity such as one remembers for 
life. 

Theodoric has a bad opinion of the case : and especially 
fears that, even if the tetanic attack is conquered, some second 
illness, such as miliary fever, will supervene, and offer no 
chance of recovery. The two Doctors also, Duffy and Burci 
(who was called in for a consultation, and quite confirms 
Duffy's treatment), are very grave, though they distinctly 
assert the case is not beyond hope. We have now engaged 
a nurse, who will be here continuously from yesterday even- 
ing. . . . — Your most affectionate 

William. 



228. — Dante Rossetti to Professor Norton. 

[I have cut out from this letter a passage regarding my 
Brother's design of Hamlet and Oplielia, as that passage has 
been used by my Daughter Helen in her Art-Journal Easter 
A?in2tal, 1902, on Dante Rossetti.'] 

16 Cheyne Walk. 
23 April 1869. 

My dear Norton, — I send you herewith some photos — 
chiefly from uncoloured drawings. The Cassandra subject I 
hope one day to paint. I mean her to be prophesying the 
death of Hector before his last battle. He will not be deterred 
from going, and rushes at last down the steps, giving an order 
across her noise to the Captain in charge of the soldiers who 
are going round the ramparts on their way to battle. Cas- 
sandra tears her garments in rage and despair. Helen is arm- 
ing Paris in a leisurely way, and he is amused at the gradual 
rage she is getting into at what Cassandra says of her. Other 
figures are Andromache with Hector's child, the Nurse, 
Priam and Hecuba, and one of the Brothers who is expostula- 
ting with Cassandra. Hector's companions have got down 
the steps before him, and are beckoning him to follow. . . . 



SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 1869 437 

I have photos of two sketches by my Wife ; Pippa, 
and another ; which I send you, as you will, I am sure, 
enjoy their poetic character. Also two or three of my 
sketches of her. I have had all her scraps and scrawls in 
ink photographed. After your kind letter about the Clerk 
Saunders, I hardly feel justified in accepting the generous 
way in which you meet my wish. It seems shameful to 
be depriving Mrs Norton and yourself of what is yours, and 
so much enjoyed by you. In any case, I should wish to be 
quite sure that what I gave you in exchange would satisfy 
you equally. Shall I do the proposed drawing of Mrs 
Norton ? or would you like one of those of Mrs Morris ? I 
would take care to give you your choice among some good 
ones. Or is there anything else you would prefer my doing 
for you ? Small work I have given up for the present. I 
shall be with you part of next Thursday, and meanwhile 
and ever am — Sincerely yours, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 

P .S. — I could give you perhaps, to make up the measure, 
some of many sketches in pencil I have, if worth giving. 



229. — Smith, Elder, & Co., to Dante Rossetti. 

15 Waterloo Place, London. 
4 May i86g. 

Dear Sir, — In reply to the enquiry contained in your 
letter of the 2nd instant, addressed to Mr Williams — we beg 
to say that we have sold 593 copies of your Early Italian 
Poets, and we have 64 copies remaining on hand. . . . 

We are happy to be able to inform you that the result 
of the sales of the work up to 31 December is ^108. lis. 8d., 
of which ;^ioo has been placed to the credit of Mr Ruskin, 
leaving a balance of ;^8. i is. 8d. due to yourself. — We remain, 
dear Sir, yours faithfully. 

Smith, Elder, & Co. 



438 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



230. — J. W. Inchbold to William Rossetti. 

Well House, Niton, Isle of Wight. 
10 May 1869. 

Dear Wm. Rossetti, — There is a picture of Venice which 
all our friends seem to like at 27 Cavendish Square, Dr 
Radcliffe's. ... It is called Porto del Mare ; was painted 
mainly in Venice, from my gondola at the Lido in the 
morning when the fisher-boats again enter the Porto to their 
home. Venice herself is seen foreshortened — Murano and 
Torcello to the extreme right — hills about Verona hinted to 
the extreme left. The brilliant sails, almost the only echo of 
the art of Titian and Tintoretto now left, are not, as you 
know, exaggerated in colour nor character of emblems. I 
have meant it for that lazy sort of a morning, not unknown 
also to you, when the hot mist at horizon hides mostly the 
distant hills of sweet Verona — excepting only those over the 
island of St Helena, the garden of the Duke de Chambord, 
the antique heir of France. Such the material — which many 
have deemed an art-success. I have tried to get the lazy 
swell of the water and reflections, and that peculiar brilliancy 
of Venice-nature, without thinking of Mr Turner or Canaletto. 
But your praise will depend upon the power within the 
picture itself to touch happily your ideal of right art. 

It is a companion-picture to the one hanging in the Uni- 
versity College Hospital, and painted by me for the benefit of 
the poor patients there (the idea originating with my friend 
Dr Reynolds) ; and was executed mainly from my gondola 
in the lagoon before those gardens we enjoyed together one 
sweet summer evening — gardens too the gift, and only gift 
worth notice, of the larger Napoleon to your own Venice. 

The picture of Stonehenge from the East is also there (at 
27 Cavendish Square) ; and may be interesting to some 
gentleman who wishes to see it, and may rely on the courtesy 
of the Doctor. It is (as you also, I believe, know) literal as 
to state of this strange weird ruin at present. I have tried 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869 439 

to secure architectural grandeur and natural sublimity, 
especially that religiousness by the introduction of the sun 
setting in the very centre of the altar-like portal ; whilst 
the clouds are meant to suggest what is at once fiery and 
spiritual, the forms being (as often in nature) scarcely draped 
in cloudy matter. At the base is a barrow of the big past 
about which the everlasting flowers are opening seed-petals 
to the wind. 

It is not, as you know, very easy to gain success perfect 
and complete in a picture like this, painted almost entirely 
from nature, with another and entirely distinct vision before 
the imagination, and perhaps with a heart somewhat maimed 
and broken by that deadly and relentless opposition I seem 
to inspire most innocently in some quarters. . . . 

I think also, if your Brother will be kind enough to send 
the picture of Venice which was at Chelsea, that also will be 
visible ; including as it does all Venice from St Helena to 
the Church of the Redeemer in the Giudecca. . . . — Ever 

affectionately yours, 

J. W. INCHBOLD. 



231. — Dante Rossetti to Professor Norton. 

[Mason, here mentioned, was the distinguished Painter of 
landscapes with figures.] 

[16 Cheyne Walk.] 
12 May 1869. 

My dear Norton, — I am very sorry to have been baulked 
of my visit to you last night ; but just after dinner Mason 
dropped in, who comes from a distance and is very delicate ; 
so I could not send him adrift, and had to spend the evening 
with him, and take my walk in his company. 

I wanted to speak to you on a matter which W. B. Scott 
was mentioning to me. There is a very fine portrait of Emer- 
son, by his late Brother David Scott (one of the few great 
painters this country has ever produced), which has been 



440 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

placed in the hands of W. J. Linton the engraver, now in 
America, with a view to sale. I believe Scott would take 60 
or 70 guineas for it, and he asked me whether I thought you 
might possibly give a hint of any probable purchaser. It is 
a life-size half-length. If I meet you once again, as I still 
hope, before your leaving London, you might tell me if any- 
thing occurs to you on the point. 

To-day is my forty-first birthday ; and, with most good 
things gone, and others that will never come now, it is some- 
thing to know of old friends still friendly, even though one 
may seldom see them ; and to say with how much true 
sympathy I am — Always yours, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 



232. — Madox Brown to William Rossetti. 

[This letter about a proposed Art-Exhibition speaks for 
itself I did not write a series of letters such as Brown 
suggested. There may have been various reasons (now for- 
gotten by me) for not doing it, and especially this — that I 
was not then connected with any journal which would have 
been a fitting medium for such correspondence.] 

37 FiTZROY Square. 
20 May 1869. 

My dear William, — In reply to your appeal for advice, 
I hasten to give it as my decided opinion that no good to 
Art can ever come of Exhibitions got up by Committees 
so utterly untrustworthy as those of the present undertaking 
and the Dudley Gallery. Their views are precisely those 
of the Academicians — only lorvcr. Some cases of individual 
injustice or cruelty may no doubt be set right in the present 
case; but what good to Art can result from the springing- 
up of one more of these numerous mediocre biingling Ex- 
hibitions ? The Oil-exhibition of the Dudley is already a 
disgrace. 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869 441 

The only thing that could at all benefit art would be 
an Exhibition of our own, which is impossible, — such as did 
not come off at the Hogarth eight years ago. 

/ think the only good now that could be done would be 
the commencement by yourself, should such be possible, of 
a series of vigorous letters to some prominent paper, telling 
the Academicians in strong but respectful language precisely 
what is now required of them. You are quite equal to doing 
this in perfection, but I should be delighted to aid with any 
ideas on the subject that I may possess. 

Were I to write at greater length, I could not put my 
views more distinctly than I have done. Come in the first 
evening you are at liberty ; they were saying here only on 
Sunday that we never see you now. — Sincerely yours. 

Ford Madox B. 



233. — Dante Rossetti to Frederick Sandys. 

[This letter relates to the untoward difference (already 
referred to in my Diary, No. 210) which arose between Mr 
Sandys the Painter and my Brother, after some years of close 
companionship, during which Mr Sandys was for several 
months a guest resident in Rossetti's house. Rossetti came 
after a while to think that his friend adopted, though not 
with conscious intention, subjects for pictures, and to some 
extent methods of treatment, which had been already schemed 
out by Rossetti himself, and had been notified among his 
acquaintances as being his. Rossetti wrote a friendly letter 
on the subject to Sandys, who replied with two somewhat 
indignant letters in my possession. Next comes this present 
letter — which I leave to speak for itself, without commenting 
on all the details. Some years afterwards — in 1880 or earlier 
— Mr Sandys evinced a wish to re-knit his old intimacy with 
Rossetti, who responded with much cordiality ; but I believe 
that, owing in part to his then recluse habits of life, they did 
not actually meet] 



442 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

[i6 Cheyne Walk. 
1869 — ? I Jufte.'l 

My dear Sandys, — Thanks for the ^50. I remember your 
showing me your memoranda to this amount after our return 
from the country in the autumn of '66. I myself have kept 
no accounts at any time. You view this payment as the 
severance of a last tie between us ; and any tie of this kind is 
so unimportant compared to those which you spontaneously 
broke through in your former letter that I had better proceed 
at once to reply to that ; as I should have done before but for 
the very painful nature of such reply. 

First of all, I must say that I did not even dream of such 
a result being called for by my first letter to you ; but of this 
you are the best judge, according to the scale of importance 
at which you rate that letter and the nature of our previous 
unreserved friendship. I myself should have thought it 
insincere and unworthy not to speak plainly to so intimate a 
friend when I felt a difficulty arising between us. 

As to the Lucretia design, my claim was based mainly on 
the mirror and reflection of figures in the background, as 
combined with the subject. This point, according to the 
description given me (and since on inquiry confirmed), was 
identical in my design and yours. Without that, the design, 
as you describe it, is of course absolutely yours, and not mine 
in the least ; and I trust you will paint it. The Helen is 
surely a strong case of resemblance (the position of the figure 
being the only difference) ; and, as to the Magdalene, the 
moment taken by me was taken then for the first time in art, 
and constituted entirely the value of my design. 

I must now say what perhaps I did not sufficiently dwell 
upon in my last note, though I know I indicated it, i.e., that I 
do not for a moment suppose you to have adopted these 
points of resemblance with clear intention from my work ; 
but I cannot doubt (1 must repeat, to be sincere) that they 
dwelt in your mind from having seen mine, and there germin- 
ated in a new form. The admirable skill with which you 
carry out all your work is such that, once adopted by you in 
the shape of complete pictures, the ideas become yours to all 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869 443 

the world, and I could never venture to claim them again 
under pain of ridicule. That your memory is not infallible 
(and therefore that such unconscious adoption is not impos- 
sible) is proved to me by what you say of not having seen 
my Lticretia except in the photograph. I remember clearly 
showing you the water-colour, and your looking at it for some 
time, just about a year ago, when I repainted the figure in it. 

Again — do you remember once drawing my attention 
yourself to the strong resemblance between your first 
woodcut-design in the Cornhill and Tintoret's St George and 
the Dragon ? I forget whether you told me that this was 
intentional, or only noticed by yourself afterwards, but I 
suppose the latter. 

You tell me of my having once claimed two subjects 
which you proposed to paint — Perdita and Merlin and 
Nininc. I am quite certain I never thought at all of paint- 
ing either subject. If, as I suppose from what you tell me, 
I raised any claim on these subjects, it must have been on 
points in your description of your projected designs — not 
as to the subjects themselves, which I never thought of 
certainly. I very dimly recollect anything about it, but can 
just remember receiving the letters which you say you 
wrote me, and then perceiving the misconception ; though, 
the matter being uncomfortable, I explained no further. 

Thus much for rejoinder on the artistic question. You 
tell me that four or five friends, being consulted, agree with 
you. I assure you there are many who not only agree with 
me, but have often suggested these questions of resemblance 
to me of their own accord. 

Any other question than the artistic one it is hardly for 
me to entertain, as you have told me spontaneously that 
you " resign my friendship." I myself hold that friendship 
should only be resigned when one friend can prove malice 
or deception against another. Of the first of these I know 
I am innocent ; of the second I should have been to a 
certain extent guilty if I had held my tongue as soon as I 
felt strongly impelled to speak. I believe myself firmly in 
the sincerity and single-mindedness of your friendship for 



444 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

me till this time, and even in all you say of your pain at 
the termination to which you have chosen to bring it. You 
say that you believe this matters little to me ; but why you 
say so I cannot conceive. It is however some relief to 
know that the separation which you make between us 
comes at a moment when, to my joy, great success and 
many friends await you, and that I can on my side remain 
still — Affectionately yours, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 



234. — Dante Rossetti to Frederick Sandys. 

16 Cheyne Walk. 
5 June i86g. 

My dear Sandys, — I have made no " attempt at self- 
justification," for none was needed. I said to you originally 
what, as an artist, I had a right to say, however its un- 
pleasantness had delayed my saying it ; and I did this after 
proving amply at all times that, as a friend, I was beyond 
suspicion. 

As for giving people's names, the idea is absurd. I asked 
you for none when you told me that some friends took your 
view of the matter. The question is purely one of artistic 
criticism, whoever raises it ; and it would be as ridiculous in 
me as in you to make it personal to others. 

The money-matter I hold to be of no importance, as I 
showed by keeping no accounts. As you send this again, I 
merely do not send it back. . . . 

I have been unwell ; and poor Mike Halliday's sudden 
death has combined with other things to make me very sad 
for a while, though now I am getting round. . . . — Yours, 

D. G. Rossetti. 



JOHN TUPPER, 1869 445 



235. — John Tupper to William Rossetti, 

[It appears that Tupper had been recommended to offer 
himself as a candidate for the Slade Professorship of Fine 
Art at one of the Universities: the observations which he 
makes in reply were based upon his experience as Master of 
Geometrical Drawing in Rugby School. In speaking of 
" Outis," he refers to the fancy-name which he had used in 
publishing a book {Hiatus, or The Void in Modern Education') 
wherein some of the same considerations are raised.] 

Rugby. 
18 June 1869. 

Dear William, — . . . And so you have sighted land, and 
the Shelleian labour is nearly done. After breathing so long 
in that poetic element, you will come out of it like a swimmer 
all atremble, and with nerves too high-strung to readily 
adapt themselves to a thinner, poorer, and less heroic 
medium. (It's a fact that, after living in the water for a long 
time, the air has not stuff enough in it to counter-check the 
enlarged pulse and nerve-play that the graver element has 
excited.) . . . 

About the Professorship, it seems better on the whole 
that things be left to the run of luck. The 'Varsities will no 
doubt get a literatus, tinctured of course with Art, to do the 
work. Nothing can come of nothing ; and the Fine- Art 
Professorship will not be a very prosperous and fruitful 
innovation. You'll see, it will be talkee-talkee, all about 
principles that no one ever disputes. All the Drawing- 
Masters, even, would agree with Outis in principles of art. 
No — a man must give the whole treasure of his time and 
strength to the wrestling with God's angels (these forms of 
strength and beauty), to do us any good now in art. But it 
will be comment upon comment, gloss upon gloss, for a while 
longer. Art-preaching is well ; but, without practical culture, 
discipline, it is ill. Here is the result of my experience 
(I have this to myself — it is my little bit of discovery). The 



446 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

substance {sub-stans) of all poetry, art, etc., is feeling, emotion. 
That is the first and only healthy state of art ; and comes when 
all the co-ordinated faculties utter their speech spontaneously, 
unconsciously, automatically (emotionally). Next, we grow 
conscious of this utterance ; the emotion is " cognized " ; and 
an emotion thought upon is an ititellection. So Art becomes 
a thing of the mind, and not a felt fact. . . . — Good-bye. 

J. L. TUPPER. 



236. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossetti. 

PONTE VECCHIO 2. 

24 June 1869. 

My dear Rossetti, — ... I hear that Mr Forster has 
finished his Life of Landor. . . . He promised to return me 
the papers which I lent him long ago. . . . They were about 
fifty letters, odes, scraps, conversations, and slips out of news- 
papers. ... I found the other day half-a-dozen more scraps 
in a box ; and I sent them to Swinburne, if they are worth 
his looking over. . . . — Ever yours, 

Seymour Kirkup. 



237. — Dr Garnett to William Rossettl 

[" The story of Shelley's consultation with Basil Montagu " 
was to the effect that Shelley, after separating from his Wife 
Harriet, and forming a connection with Mary Godwin, had 
consulted Montagu as to whether it would be fitting or not to 
invite Harriet to house with Mary and himself] 

British Museum. 
13 July 1869. 

My dear Rossetti, — ... I never before heard the story 
of Shelley's consultation with Basil Montagu ; but it is quite 



DR GARNETT, 1869 447 

of a piece with all I know of his conduct at the time, and con- 
firms what I have always said, that, although he would no 
longer cohabit with Harriet, he had no idea of abandoning 
her, I thought from the first that Hookham was probably 
Browning's informant. This makes it nearly a moral certainty 
that the letter from Harriet referred to by Swinburne was 
written about the beginning of July. I do not believe that 
Shelley was insane at the period, but 1 dare say he was quite 
sufficiently excited for Hookham to think so. You may 
remember a remarkable passage in Hogg, near the end, where 
he speaks of certain visions or hallucinations which Shelley 
had on a walk from Bracknell to Horsham about the begin- 
ning of June, and therefore before the date of these trans- 
actions. 

I leave town for a fortnight on Monday ; and, having much 
to do before my departure, I am afraid that I should not be 
able to annotate your MS. just now. If it has not gone to 
press by the beginning of August, I shall be very glad to 
peruse it again. ... I will now mention one important 
correction. You say that Godwin and his Wife readily 
aquiesced in Shelley's connection with Mary. On the con- 
trary, they were extremely angry, and, upon Shelley and 
Mary's return from the Continent, ignored them altogether. 
I cannot find that any communication took place until 
November 1815. There is a story of Godwin's seeing Shelley 
from a distance in the Park while they were estranged, and 
remarking that " he was so beautiful, it was a pity he should 
be so wicked ! " . . . 

I am glad you have met Miss Blind. She is a very 
interesting person, and has the keenest sympathy with 
imaginative power, wherever manifested, particularly in 
Shelley, Swinburne, and your Brother. I hope she will be 
able to do some good with Miss Rumble, and that the lady's 
relics may prove to be valuable. I have seen plenty of letters 
from Emilia, usually beginning " Caro fratello." They are 
very interesting, of course ; but, when you have read one, you 
seem to have read them all. — Yours very sincerely, 

R. Garnett. 



448 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



238. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossetti. 

PONTE VECCHIO 2. 

14 July 1869. 

My dear Friend, — Yours of the 6th has just arrived, and 
I hasten to thank you for it, and the kind compHment 
enclosed from your Essay ; which I esteem a high honour, 
and for which I am grateful. . . . 

Pietrocola made me acquainted (photographically) with 
all your family. He and his Wife are excellent persons 
and warm-hearted souls. He has the greatest affection for 
the memory of your dear Father, whom I consider one of 
the martyrs of science. He was before his age, as most 
discoverers have been in former times. Now it is different. 
Neither Watt nor Morse, both of whom I knew, has been 
collato by the Inquisition, like Galileo and Machiavelli. . . . 

Lord Vernon wanted me to illustrate his Dante. I would 
not attempt it, after my old friend and master, Flaxman ; and 
I proposed monuments, views, portraits, pictures, etc., one 
before every canto, and a vignette at the end of each, and 
about twenty for the introduction. As there were some 
cantos where no monuments are mentioned, I proposed a 
sort of panorama, uniting many subjects, as the old painters 
did— 

1. The three beasts, Virgil, the Sciagurati, and Charon. 

2. Limbo and the Poets. 

3. The bufera degli anianti,^ Cerberus, Plutus, and the 
Avari and Prodighi. 

4. The telegraph and Dite, with the boat of Phlegyas. 

5. The city of Dite, the Minotaur, the Imrato, the Centaurs, 
the wood of Suicides, the burning sand and shower of fire, 
Dante on the margin of the canal ; — 

and so on, uniting many subjects in one view as the oldest 
masters sometimes did. Some of my drawings were after- 
wards spoiled by retouching them by ignorant artists ; and 

* Whirlwind of the Lovers. 



LUCY BROWN ROSSETTl, 1869 449 

the Zodiac is a failure, owing to the ignorance of the Editor, 
to whom Lord Vernon had not explained it before his death, 
I will tell you how to correct it. It is a thing of my own 
invention. The plates are marked S.K., V., P.L., for me, 
Lord Vernon, and Paolo Lasinio the engraver. I withdrew 
from the affair, for I found I was being sacrificed as well as 
tormented by the caprices of my Lord, who was in such a hurry 
to publish that he would not allow the engraver to finish 
properly, and yet the book has been thirty years coming out ! 
A copy has been sent to the National Library in a shabby 
paper cover, uncut when I saw it. I don't know the present 
Lord Vernon. . . . 

I am glad you have secured the friendship of Trelawny. 
He is a noble fellow. He is not only my greatest and best 
friend, but the best friend I ever heard of, and he has great 
natural talents. The more you know him, the more you will 
like him. . . . 

I saved Rossini's life fifteen years ago — strychnine ! 

Salute your cousins and all your family and A. C. 
S[winburne]. — With sincere affection, yours ever, 

Seymour Kirkup. 

Browning told me that Landor had cut Forster (if I 
understood right), but that L[andor]'s family had given him 
help and encouragement to write his Life. I never saw 
F[orster] ; but it was to please Browning and commemorate 
L[andor] that I sent the letters etc. to B[rowning], who sent 
them to F[orster], who wrote me a note thanking me for the 
loan of them. . . . 



239. — Lucy Brown (Rossetti) to Madox Brown. 

[I give this scrap as affording a slight glimpse of William 
Morris. He had started for the Continent with his Wife, and 
his Sister-in-law Miss Burdon, and had invited Lucy Brown 
to join in the trip. Miss Burdon and Miss Brown, having 

2 F 



450 tlOSSETTi PAPERS 

reached Cologne through Ghent and other cities, returned to 
London after a few days — Mr and Mrs Morris proceeding 
further on their way. — The Rue de la Cloche, Calais, contains 
the house in which Madox Brown was born.] 

Hotel Meurice, Rue de Guise, Calais. 
[19 July 1869.] 

My dearest Papa, — We arrived here, where we are likely 
to remain till to-morrow, as Mrs Morris is feeling by no means 
well after the journey. . . . The heat is so intense it is almost 
unendurable. I am writing in the courtyard, which is a great 
improvement on the house. Mr Morris is also writing, or 
attempting to write, poetry ; but the jabbering of about a 
dozen Frenchmen is, I fancy, disturbing to him (as I find 
myself inclined to write some of their remarks). ... I was 
too tired to go to the Rue de la Cloche on our return. I 
mean to go there this evening, however. . . . — Your very 
loving child, 

Lucy. 

P.S. — Mr Morris Jias written fifty lines, and has gone for 
a turn in the town. 



240. — Mathilde Blind to William Rossettl 

2 Winchester Road, Adelaide Road. 
20 July 1869. 

Dear Mr Rossetti, — I was highly pleased on receiving 
your version of the Shelley anecdote, although it differs in 
some of the details from the story as told me by Miss Rumble. 
As I wrote it down on the evening of hearing it, as soon as I 
reached home, I believe it is, at any rate, a correct statement 
of what I heard myself, I have copied it out for you exactly 
as I find it in my note-book. You will see that it is there 
expressly stated that the story belongs to the time when the 
Gisbornes were in England, and the Shelleys occupying their 



MATHILDE BLIND, 1869 451 

house. The knife was a pistol, still more dangerous a weapon 
in Shelley's hand ; and the fact of the woman being the wife 
of the man who was bullying her makes Shelley's rage even 
more natural. The story, it seems, was told to Miss Rumble 
by the servants themselves, and also mentioned by Mrs 
Shelley in some letter, I forget to whom. Miss Rumble also 
spoke to me of Shelley's and Mrs Gisborne's belief in appari- 
tions, and told me some little thing connected with it, which 
however I cannot clearly recollect. I think that Trelawny 
mentions something of the same kind in his Recollections 
referring to Shelley and Byron. . . . 

Shelley appears to me as a unique apparition among the 
great poets of the world. He is our " bright and morning 
star" among the stellar splendours. . . . — Very faithfully 
yours, 

Mathilde Blind. 

When Shelley was staying in the villa of the Gisbornes 
during their absence in England, a most droll incident 
occurred, which Miss Rumble told me. It appears that the 
servants Giuseppe and Annunziata, who were man and wife, 
had been left behind with the Shelleys. One evening there 
had sprung up a thorough conjugal tempest ; and Shelley, 
hearing Giuseppe abusing his Wife very savagely and also ill- 
using her, rushed upon him with a pistol, shouting " I'll shoot 
you, I'll shoot you!" The startled fellow ran for his very 
life, Shelley after him ; till the former, coming to a shrubbery 
of laurels, managed to slip under them. Shelley in his eager- 
ness darting past him, he in a few minutes found it possible to 
dodge back into the house unperceived. Shelley, seeing him 
no more, at last went back to the house ; where, to his 
unutterable surprise, he found Giuseppe and Annunziata sit- 
ting together in the most amicable manner, addressing each 
other as "Caro" and " Carissima." "But were you not 
quarrelling even now ? " exclaimed the perplexed poet. 
"Quarrelling?" said Giuseppe with mock innocence. "No, 
Signor, we never quarrelled." " But I have been running 
after you in order to shr '; you." " No, Signor, you never 



452 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

ran after me, for I have been sitting here for the last hour or 
more. You must have fancied all this." And, Giuseppe and 
Annunziata (who had both been considerably frightened) con- 
tinuing to assure him that they had had no quarrel, and Mary 
Shelley, whom they had let into the secret, saying the same, 
Shelley was at last utterly mystified, and half inclined him- 
self to believe that he must have fancied it. 

Miss Rumble also told me that Shelley, who was in the 
habit of using a little warming-pot (or whatever else it is 
with which it is customary in Italy to warm the hands in 
winter), one day went running about the house screaming 
" Fire, fire ! " till everybody was running about fairly frightened 
to see where it could be. At last it was discovered that 
Shelley's own jacket had caught fire from the thing he held 
in his hands. 

Unfortunately I could recollect but one sentence from the 
letters of Emilia Viviani, which ran as follows to the best of 
my knowledge. She compares herself to the flowers of the 
dawn, who have all the freshness of the dew upon them, and 
whose honey has been robbed as yet by no bee ; " you alone 
have been my bee, O adorato Sposo." 



241. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[By " the old lady " is meant Miss Losh, a Cousin of Miss 
Boyd of Penkill Castle. Mr Brown did not avail himself of 
the invitation here conveyed. — The " stables " spoken of in 
the P.S. were those proper to Rossetti's house in Cheyne 
Walk.] 

Penkill Castle, near Girvan, Ayrshire. 
19 August 1869. 

Dear Brown, — Here I am since yesterday, having spent 
one day on the road with the old lady. Everything is as 
jolly as possible, and everybody wants you. So you see you 
■must come instantly on receipt of this. You will enjoy 
yourself greatly, and even profit in subject-matter for some- 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869 453 

thing to a certainty. . . . Change carriages at Kilmarnock, 
and go on at once to Ayr. Here you would arrive at 10.50, 
and would have to stay there till 3.32, which time you could 
occupy in grog at the Taui O'S/ianter, where you would see 
T[am] o' S[hanter]'s and Souter Johnny's chairs and 
drinking-horns. . , . — Ever yours, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 

P.S. — On Monday I actually got possession of the stables, 
and broke down the door separating them from the garden. 
On soberly considering them, I think them most promising. 



242.— William Rossetti to Dante Rossetti, 
Penkill Castle. 

[In my Meinotr of Dante Rossetti I have given extracts 
from letters which he wrote to me in 1869; when, having 
caused a large proportion of his poems to be privately 
printed (with a tolerably clear view towards early publica- 
tion), he sent the proofs to me, inviting comment and 
revision. Here I give a few out of the many remarks I 
made in response. The pagination quoted is of course that 
of i\).Q private printing, and does not apply to the published 
volume. Pages 16 and 18 belong to The Burden of Nineveh. 
Mary in Siunnier was a very early poem (dating perhaps in 
1846) which has not been published. Placatd Venere is a 
sonnet, the same as the much-debated Nuptial Sleep.'\ 

56 EusTON Square. 
23 August [1869]. 

Dear Gabriel, — I have been reading your poems all the 
evening with intense pleasure : they are (as I know from of 
old) most splendid, and ought to be published without any 
not seriously motived delay. Some of the old ones, like 
Staff and Scrip, to which my memory was entirely faithful 
but rather blurred, are even better than I would have 



454 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

afifirmed. ... I have made various, but not many, press- 
corrections, not needing any notification. . . . 
Page 1 6. Egyptian mummies — 

Even to some 
Of these thou wert antiquity. 

This statement, literally accepted, is no doubt true : but 

you know Egyptian civilization and art are far older than 

Ninevite, and I think the impression from your passage runs 

counter to this fact. 

i8.— 

Eldest grown of earthly queens. 

The same consideration arises, and more unevadeably. 

21. Ave. — I would retain this, and consider your note a 
most ample saving-clause. . . . 

65. I doubt whether the effect of the loig lines in this 
poem is quite satisfactory to the ear — as 

So my maiden, so my modest may. 

They have the great value of specializing the l}'rical rhythm 
— and, if you advisedly like them, you are probably right. . . . 

85. Mary in Summer. — I could not rcco)iime7id its omis- 
sion, but can't exactly dissuade. It is very pretty. 

91. I am sorry to perceive, on reading this Italian poem 
with a strict technical view, that several lines are decidedly 
un-Italian in metre. Your knowledge of the fact will confirm 
mine — that one can't in Italian go on the merely accentual 
plan of Christabcl etc. etc. : every foot (barring elision of 
vowels) must be two syllables and no more. All these lines 
are peccant ones — 

E piangendo disse 

Dello stanco sole [etc.] . . . 

147. TJie Choice. — I incline to the admission of these 

sonnets. 

Care, gold, and care — 

Is this rightly printed ? I think the di'ift of the sonnet 
might gain if you could make the speaker jeer against 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869 455 

thought — any serious purpose in life — as well as money- 
making. As long as he prefers pleasure to that, he seems to 
be about right — and I don't suppose you mean he should 
so seem altogether. 

Put-in Placatd Venere by all means — at any rate, so long 
as the collection remains private. I must re-read the poem 
before expressing a distinct opinion as to publication. . . . — 
Your 

W. M. R. 



P.S. — P. 1 6. I also rather doubt the phrase " a pilgrim " 
as applied to these Egyptians. I understand it to mean what 
we should call " an art-pilgrim " — a tourist with an archaeo- 
logical object. I suspect these mummies were innocent of 
such purposes — or at the extreme utmost would have " done " 
Egypt. Nineveh is very distant, and alien too. If it is a 
religio7is pilgrim — as a consulter of the Oracle at Delphi, for 
instance — I believe it is equally or more untenable. 



243. — William Rossetti to Dante Rossetti, 
Penkill Castle. 

[P. 157 relates to the Sonnet Retro vie Sathana ; 169 to 
that upon Giorgione's picture in the Louvre; 175 to that for 
Rossetti's picture The Girlhood of Mary Virgin; 199 etc. to 
the prose tale Hand and Soul. The Sonnet The Bullfinch 
was published under a different name, Beauty and the Bird. — 
As to " Miss Losh's architectural works " etc. a letter from 
Dante Rossetti has been published dated 21 August 1869.] 

56 EusTON Square. 
24 August [1869.] 

Dear Gabriel, — I have just finished the proofs. 
P. 157. I don't quite like 

Many years, many months, and many days. 
If I remember right, there used to be a particular number 



456 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

given, which I think better in effect, though perhaps too 
mannered. I'm not sure but that I should prefer 

For certain years and certain months and days. . . . 

169. — 

Life touching Hps with Immortality. 

A very fine line : but I almost think I like the old original 
one best, as related to the picture. This new one seems to 
trench a little too much on the ideal — which is not to me at 
all the effect of the picture, but only poetry by way of 
intensity, or one might say saturation — and the old line 
realized that. . . . 

I75-— 

Unto God's will she brought devout respect. 

There is something prosaic in this line, I think. I am 
certain it has tribulated you much, and probably you are 
not yourself satisfied with it. 

177. Venus Verticordia. — I think this title has been dis- 
cussed with you before. Lempriere makes a very startling 
statement : " Venus was also surnamed .... Verticordia, 
because she could turn the hearts of women to cultivate 
chastity." If this is at all correct, it is clear that the Verti- 
cordian Venus is, technically, just the contrary sort of Venus 
from the one you contemplate — she must be a phase of Venus 
Urania. 

185. The Bullfinch. — I would put it in: it is good, and 
relieves the tension of the collection. I don't however quite 
like the phrases '' Brave head and kind," and " I felt made 
strong." 

Placatd Vefiere should go in, even in a published form. 
For that I think you vm^t perhaps reconsider the title, which 
appears to me a nearer approach to indecorum than anything 
in the sonnet itself. 

199. Their crucifixes and addolorate. 

I will not answer for it, but this sounds to me rather 
anachronistic. I am not sure that you would find a7iy 
addolorata at these early dates, and am pretty confident such 
a treatment is not characteristic of the time. The Virgin with 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869 457 

seven swords stuck through her heart, and all that sort of 
thing, I think is late ; it smacks to me of Jesuitism, St 
Theresa, etc. . . . 

202, 207. Church of San Rocco viust be changed : this 
Saint was not yet born — died in 1322. . . . 

Mamma sent Christina your letter about Miss Losh's 
architectural works etc. ; they must be very interesting, and 
ought to be properly recorded in print by some expert. Love 
at Penkill from your 

W. M. ROSSETTI. 



244. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[The "dreadful grief" of Mr Frederick Craven (who in 
these years was a steady purchaser of paintings by Brown 
and by Rossetti) was connected with a carriage-accident : I 
rather think a Daughter of his had been killed.] 

Penkill, 
26 August 1869. 

Dear Brown, — Three pleasant people are desiring you, 
and you really Jiuist make up your mind to come. All the 
pleasures of this place, which are old to us, will be new to 
you, and that will renew them to us also. So here is one 
of the sympathetic moments of life awaiting you, and you 
do not hurry to it. 

Tin be blowed ! The question is not so grave as to be 
a real delay. If necessary, of course I can send what is 
wanted till your work gets done, some of which you could 
very well do here. There is a capital studio. Moreover, 
you were thinking of a Nativity ; and a spot there is here 
is the very background you want, both in material and 
lovely simple colour, and even suggests of itself the com- 
position. 

I suppose I shall certainly be staying-on a fortnight 



458 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

from to-day ; but whether longer, or how much longer, I 
cannot tell. . . . 

My news from Ems leads me to suppose that the 
second Thursday from this may probably bring the travellers 
back. . . . Janey writes that she is not worse than at her 
last writing, when the news was very hopeful ; but I can 
see by the tone of her letter, and indeed by much she says 
plainly, that she is discouraged at the slow progress 
made. . . . 

I am extremely shocked to hear of poor Craven's dreadful 
grief, and must write him. . . . 

Perhaps William may have shown you the article on me 
in Tzns/eys Ma^^asz'ne for September. It is . . . encouraging. 
After twenty years, one stranger has learned that one exists. 
He is so enthusiastic about our old friend Jlly Sister's Sleep 
that I shall have, I suppose, to include it in my present reprint ; 
. . , because such commencement of publicity would be likely 
to lead to its getting reprinted somehow some day, and 
there are things which should be altered in it. ... I gather 
that next month William will be proluded upon. 

Scott is working in his steady though leisurely way. 
The sketches for his windows at Kensington (I don't know 
if you've seen them up there) are extremely clever ; and he 
has lately done three or four Burns illustrations which are 
really most beautiful in invention and high feeling, and 
altogether I think much the best he has done. His work 
on Albert Durer is affording us evening readings, and must 
I think prove a success. People do not know how much 
in the way of autobiography and letters exists by A[lbert] 
D[urer.] . . . 

He and Miss Boyd send united love, and injunctions to 
come at once. The weather here is splendid — only very 
hot for walking. . . . — Your affectionate 

D. Gabriel R. 



W. D. O'CONNOR, 1869 459 



245. — W. D. O'Connor to William Rossettl 

Washington. 
28 August 1869. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — I have recently hit upon a new 
method of making cast steel in a very short time and at a 
very low price — an invention, as you may imagine, of ex- 
treme value ; and my complete submersion in the experi- 
ments at the foundry, and the effort to put the enterprise 
on a commercial footing, as well as my other engrossing 
occupation in official (Light-house) business, must be my 
excuse for the delay in answering your kind and welcome 
letter of July 13th, which, with its precious enclosure, duly 
reached me, as also did your note of the 8th instant. 

I will not ask the dear lady's name, since you prefer not 
to be questioned about it ; but, if I knew it, I would treasure 
it in my heart of hearts. ... I would not seem high-flown or 
extravagant in my avowals, but it is only the simplest 
truth to say that I read these extracts with the deepest 
emotion. . . . Doubtless, they affected me as they could not 
you. For I am a daily and intimate witness of the multiform 
varieties of insult and outrage showered upon our poet — all 
that can show the littleness and baseness, the indescribable 
stupidity and malignity, of human beings, from the petty 
affronts of titmen and mannikins on the pavement to the 
sweltered venom of Lowell in the dull Review. Living in the 
midst of all this, judge of my indignation and dejection ; and 
judge then of the re-assurance, the comfort, and the exaltation, 
such words as your friend's must afford me. ... I felt, after 
reading them, as one who, surrounded by a vast and crowded 
amphitheatre, tiers upon tiers of faces wrinkled with derision or 
puckered with hostility, sees, lonely amidst the multitude, a 
countenance radiant with the soul. 

It would be idle to attempt to say what comes to me, in 
the brief space of a letter ; but, among the many precious 
things in your friend's MS., I must treasure her perception of 
the orgaitic character of Leaves of Grass — its mutuality of 



460 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

relations, sense and form corresponsive, like body and spirit, 
and her apprehension of its electrical and ample grandeur. . . . 
There are, besides, many sentences which have a divine 
eloquence. " Our instincts are beautiful facts of Nature, as 
well as our bodies." ..." Who so well able to judge wisely 
of the book as one who, having been a happy wife and 
mother, has learned to accept with tenderness, to feel a 
sacredness in, all the facts of nature?" ..." It is only lovers 
and poets who may say what they will : — the lover to his own ; 
the poet to ail, because all are in a sense Jiis ozuni' These lines 
are themselves poems. ... I confess to brooding upon them 
with as much amazement as thankfulness. 

I could not see Mr Whitman immediately, so sent the 
packet to him, and did not meet him till the succeeding 
day. He said little, but his tone and manner were of deep 
import. He read the extracts several times, and wished to 
keep them, I think he was profoundly moved, and for days 
afterwards it seemed to me that his Olympian front was 
surcharged with a tender pensiveness. One day he said, 
referring to the packet, that he " often felt that his book was 
mainly written for great wives and mothers, and its purport 
would be best apprehended by them." This is the most 
memorable or reportable thing I heard from him. 

I gave him your messages, and he bade me return you 
his kindest remembrances. 

Receive my cordial thanks for your letter and the ever- 
prized enclosure. You could not have given me a gift more 
beautiful. I am as one endowed with a branch of stars. . . . 

Our latest sensation is Mrs Stowe's account of Byron. A 
scandalous and shameful apocalypse ; without even the merit 
of novelty, for I heard it, and despised it, a dozen years ago. 
One would fancy Mrs Stowe demented to issue this old foul 
romance, without one scrap of evidence, and pregnable on 
every side. Poor Byron ! . . . I do hope the English reviews 
will bring Mrs Stowe to her senses. Here, the condemnation 
is universal, . . , — Faithfully yours, 

W. D. O'Connor. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869 461 



246. — William Rossetti to Dante Rossetti, 
Penkill Castle. 

[My statement as to some degree of obscurity in Sister 
Helen applied to the poem as it originally stood — i.e.^ without 
its present opening stanza. Violet or the Danseuse is a novel 
first published towards 1840, and much admired by Dante 
Rossetti : he wrote to Notes and Queries enquiring as to its 
authorship, but no solution was forthcoming. The novel is 
understood to be the work of a lady ; some names have been 
suggested, but not, I think, with any final certainty.] 

56 EusTON Square. 
28 August \\%(i(^. 

Dear Gabriel, — A few words in reply to yours of 
Thursday. 

I had a suspicion, but not distinct idea, that your Italian 
versification might be based on some analogy of very old 
poems. Have now looked (very slightly as yet, but will con- 
tinue, and write further about it) into some old Italian poems. 
As yet I find no confirmation of your view in any save very old 
poems : in some of these apparent — but I think only apparent 
— confirmation. For instance, Odo delle Colonne, 1245 : 

Distretto core e amoroso 

Gioioso mi fa cantare, 
E certo s'io son pensoso 

Non e da maravigliare. 

My own belief is however that these irregularities are not 
of the accentual-equivalent class of yours, but reducible to 
two heads — non-elision of vowels, and rapid transition from 
iambic to trochaic structure. I scan thus: 

Distret/to cor e a/moro/so 

Gi6io/s6 mi/ fa can/tare, 
E cer/to s'l'/o son/ pens6/so 

Non e/ da ma/ravi/glidre. 

No doubt the trochees of 2 and 4 (particularly 2) are arbi- 



462 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

trary trochees, not conformable to at any rate modern 
accentuation : still, I understand them to be theoretic 
trochees. One might say the same of your line, 

E dis/se ri/dendo : 

but I don't think it could be justified at the present day. , . . 

Song and Music I would retain. . . . 

I agree with Scotus about Sister Helen : have always 
considered it an exercise to one's ingenuity of comprehen- 
sion, but not an unfair exercise. I really can't say there 
is anything else in particular I think in need of making- 
out — though I think it true various of the poems demand a 
poetical apprehension to seize them in their fullness. I 
fancy most readers will be abroad at the opening of Nocturn, 
but will gradually, as they proceed, guess what the inform- 
ing idea is. I wouldn't be disposed to elucidate. . . . 

My Sister s Sleep is, to my thinking, fully good enough 
to go in, after revision — and your present reason for put- 
ting it in conclusive. Christina is sending you a transcript, 
and will no doubt read the proofs of the poems as you 
suggest. . . . — Your 

W. M. ROSSETTI. 

Your question about Violet or the Danseuse is at last in 
N\otes\ and Q\tieries\ They can give no explanation : only 
that there is no evidence in favour of Miss Brougham, nor 
(I should think not) of Lytton, who it seems had also 
been started. . . . 



247. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[" Poor Payne " was the Rev. J. Burnell Payne, who had, 
more or less definitely, relinquished clerical duty, and taken 
up with fine-art criticism etc.] 



MADOX BROWN, 1869 463 

Penkill Castle. 
[? 31 August 1869.] 

Dear Brown, — Your letter is too calmly brutal. How- 
ever, I trust, before you get this, you will have received 
our despatches sent yesterday, and been brought to reason. 
There is no excuse for you if you don't come. 

I am very much grieved to hear of poor Payne's death. 
He was a good fellow, a good friend, and a man of true 
inclination to good things in art and poetry. It is singular 
how these rare birds — whether patrons or critics — get picked 
off one by one ; while no man ever heard of the putrid 
Academic sty being prematurely a pig the worse for all the 
epidemics and cattle-plagues that turn up. 

Leys's death is almost as unexpected. However, his 
work is done, and well done. When I saw him some year 
and a half ago, I should never have thought him a likely 
man for Death to tackle. 

Do explain yourself by return of post about Byron. I 
know of nothing bearing on the subject, and am most excited 
to hear. If anything in print that can be sent easily, please 
send it. . . . 

Weather has improved here as to coolness, and walking is 
much less arduous. Do come. 

My last news from Ems shows very gradual progress, but 
still some, I suppose. Miracles are evidently not to be 
expected. I am very glad to hear what you tell me of 
Emma's improvement. Love to her and all yours. — Your 
affectionate 

D. G. R. 



248.— Madox Brown to Lucy Brown (Rossetti), 
Shanklin. 

[The portraits which Cathy (Mrs Hueffer) proposed to 
paint were in fact painted, and very good works they both 
are — the likeness of Madox Brown a valuable one. — "The 



464 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Jacob " means Jacob and Joseph's Coat (the Sons of Jacob 
showing him the coat of many colours after the falsely in- 
vented death of Joseph) ; this version of the composition 
seems to be the smaller oil-picture which was bought by Mr 
Brockbank. — I do not think that Oliver Brown ever painted 
a picture of Danae. — "Marie" is Mrs Stillman (then Miss 
Spartali) : Lucy Brown was on a visit to her and her parents. 
I do not well recollect Mrs Stillman's " drawing of the girls 
with the peacock," and still less any verses which Madox 
Brown may have written to illustrate that work. — The initials 
which I give — H., and G. H. — are not correct.] 

37 FiTZROY Square. 
8 September 1869. 

Dearest Lucy, — . . . Cathy . . . has fixed, for her winter- 
work, to paint a portrait of vie, and a picture of her Ma in the 
black and flame-powdered grenadine, sitting near the window 
in the drawing-room at needlework, but iimsing ; it looks 
most lovely in nature, so I hope may turn out well, only poor 
Mainvia will have a dose oj it. Nolly is just finishing the 
Jacob for me ; when he will begin his winter-works, Exercising 
(water-colour) and Danae (oil). I am still at The Entomb- 
ment, but have worked a little at Jacob. I have also tried my 
hand at a song, to suit Marie's drawing of the girls with the 
peacock, which Morris ought to have written, I should have 
sent it you, but cannot satisfy myself with it. I have tried 
it in English, and in French, in the form of three triolets ; 
and I think I shall now try it as a sonnet, and perhaps send 
you all three. . . . 

Rossetti is still at Penkill, and at last seems to have left 
off writing me elaborately worked-out itineraries to Penkill 
Castle, followed up by exhortations not to be a sneak but to 
start at once. The Morrises have started on their way 
back. . . . 

We called on the H's — drearier than dreariness' self, but 
they are good people. G. H. is there ; who to his Brother . . . 
is in brilliancy what Jie is in brilliancy to the rest of mankind. 
Occasion led me to remark that the late lamented Leys had 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869 465 

a large nose, which imparted a stupid look to the rest of his 
countenance. Emma declares the two Brothers looked at 
each other in dismay. . . . 

Tell our friend Marie that she must think of her designs 
for next season ; and, if it is my fate and destiny to become 
2l persistent bore, then I must become one, that's all. 

One of Nolly's efts has disappeared. The chameleon (a 
much more important affair) also disappeared twice — the 
second time for a day and a half; but was found early one 
morning ascending the banisters, and Nolly declares his joy 
at meeting him was touching — I mean the chameleon's. . . . 
— Your ever affectionate Pa, 

Ford Madox B. 



249. — William Rossetti to Dante Rossetti, 
Penkill Castle. 

[The proofs of Mr Scott belonged to his book, Albert Durer, 
his Life and Works. — My " Notice of Byron " was the Pre- 
fatory Notice in the edition of Byron's poems in the series 
Moxotis Popular Poets. Whoever told me that Byron was 
very like his half-sister Mrs Leigh must have been mistaken. 
The resemblance, if indeed there was any, was slight indeed.] 

56 EusTON Square. 
12 September [1869]. 

Dear Gabriel, — Your revised proofs reached me the other 
day, and I have now looked them through so far (only) as to 
answer the points hitherto left aside in your letters. 

P. 24.— 

The sea 
Sighed further off, etc. 

The present lines very good, and I assume better than the 
old ones, though I don't remember these last-named with 
entire clearness. But unfortunately there is a very serious 
objection which I had not reflected about before. Nazareth 

2 G 



46G ROSSETTI PAPERS 

is quite inland, about equidistant from the Mediterranean and 
the Lake of Tiberias : the sea could no more be heard there 
than in London or Birmingham. I know one may care too 
much for objections of this sort, yet I think the local mend- 
acity is too glaring. . . . 
5-— 

Was she not stepping to my side 
Down all the trembling stair ? 

I prefer trembling to tremulous — and think the objection, as 
connected with " stepping," infinitesimal. It would be another 
matter if the two words occupied like positions in the verse. 

6.— 

With angels in strong \Q\€i flight. 

I suppose this should on the whole be preferred to lapse. Yet 
I like the visual impression created by the latter word a good 
deal the better : it looks like sailing through the air without 
any motion of the wings (as one often sees birds), and gives 
more the idea of serial succession. . . . 

8. You say last line of stanza 3 sounds shortish. I don't 
perceive it at all as regards that line, 

Wherein Love descries his goal : 

rather as regards 

And the funeral goes by — 

but would not on any account alter this last. . . . 

7. I think Nocturn is perceptibly clearer with the restored 
stanza 2, which contains besides some very fine lines. , . . 

39. Sister Helen is far clearer with the new opening 
stanza : and the one further on is a fine one. 

Tell Scotus I now have his proofs U and X, and retain 
them unexamined till 1 hear further from him. 

What do you and he think of the Byron affair — if indeed 
you have had an opportunity of following its phases ? The 
question is a practical one to me, as I must make some modi- 
fication in the notice of Byron I wrote lately. At first I 
assumed that the story would scarcely bear being called in 
question : but the controversy inclines me to regard it as yet 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869 467 

open to a good deal of doubt. The great point to determine 
would be about the child born of the incest, and kept by Lady- 
Byron for some while, as affirmed by Mrs Stowe : but nobody 
elucidates that. The first thing I did was to look up B[yron]'s 
poems addressed to his half-sister, and I certainly consider 
that they tell very strongly against the story. One might 
explain them away as calculated deception, but I should 
hesitate to adopt that view. . . . — Your 

W. M. ROSSETTI. 

By the way, I don't at all agree in the obloquy lavished 
on Mrs Stowe. 

Do you remember whether it is said that Byron was very 
like his half-sister ? If so (some one of no authority told me 
the other day that so it was), the suggestion that there was 
really no blood-relationship between the two vanishes. Other- 
wise this suggestion, which some one made in The Times^ 
deserves sojne consideration. The first Mrs Byron was a 
divorced Lady Carmarthen, . . . mother of Augusta ; and, 
if she played her husband Byron false, and bore Augusta to 
another man, there cotdd be no " incest " — as the mothers of 
the poet and Augusta were two different women. 



250. — William Rossetti to Dante Rossetti, 
Penkill Castle. 

[My reference to a " prose synopsis " made by my Brother 
applies to his having made such a synopsis of an intended 
poem, The Grchard-pit : of the poem itself hardly anything 
was ever written. — "Emma" (here named) was not Mrs 
Madox Brown, but a servant of my Brother.] 

EusTON Square. 
16 Septejnber [1869]. 

Dear Gabriel, — ... P. 7. Lovers Nocturn. — Stanzas i and 
2, as now altered by you, are decidedly perspicuous, and I 



468 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

don't think more needs doing. I exactly agree with you as 
to the pros and cons of " Dreamland " — pros prevailing. I 
think it considerably better that the poem should be made to 
express an actual love, rather than an ideal amatory pro- 
clivity ; and I think also, with you, that there is next to 
nothing in the poem to force the latter conception on the 
reader's notice. 

9. Stanza, " As since man " etc. — The whole image, and 
especially (as verses) lines 2 and 3, are so good that I think 
you should make an effort to adapt rather than reject this 
stanza. . . . 

Marys Girlhood. — "This is that blessed Mary." I do 
think the repetition of phrase in the Sibylla sonnet a sound — 
not a very grave — objection. " 'Tis of that " seems to me too 
peculiar — too much of the P.R.B. twang. . . . 

Autumn Idleness^ and A Match with the Moon. — Both very 
good. The latter has a playful quaintness, but nothing 
exceptionable. 

Card-Dealer very good indeed now. 

I am glad to hear you are writing so much, and to so good 
a result — and interested to hear of your " prose synopsis " plan. 
I remember Alfieri gives some curious details about the 
structural system of composition he adopted, and, if I can 
find the passage and think it would amuse you, will send 
some particulars one day. 

The wombat, whom I saw yesterday, is the greatest lark 
you can imagine : possibly the best of wombats I have seen. 
She (for I believe it is a she) is but little past babyhood, and 
of a less wiry surface than the adult wombat : very familiar, 
following one's footsteps about the room, and trotting after 
one if one quickens pace — and fond of nestling up into any 
hollow of arms or legs, and nibbling one's trowsers, etc. 
Wombat can by exertion and rigour be made to sit up like 
a man, but resists to the utmost of her force, which is indeed 
considerable. I am glad to perceive that Emma is very fond 
of her. Wombat scares the cat, but fraternizes with the 
rabbits. Sighs from time to time, but emits no other sound 
that I heard. . . . 



WILLIAM BELL SCOTT, 1869 469 

Now for the Italian poem. . . . Theodoric . . . spoke to 
me (as he puts it in his letter) of your senarii. It did not 
happen to us to pursue the subject very systematically ; but 
I understood him to imply that an Italian would regard the 
exceptional feet in your verses, not as simple laxities of 
disyllabic metre, but as unauthorized interpolations of 
trisyllabic metre. ... I understood Teodorico to regard such 

lines as these — 

E disse ridendo — 
La state talora — 

as consisting simply of two trisyllables apiece — ^just like the 
confessedly and unalteringly trisyllabic metre of Papa's 
Salterio — senarii, as his own preface terms them — 

Qual' alba tranquilla, 

Che lieto orizzonte, 

Gia dietro a quel monte, etc. . . . 



— Your 



W. M. ROSSETTI. 



251. — William Bell Scott to William Rossettl 

[The poem which Mr Scott terms The Sea-Margin must 
be The Sea-Limit (or, as now printed, Sea-limits). The last 
two lines of it, in the privately printed sheets, stand 
thus : 

Last utterly, the whole sky stands, 

Grey and not known, along its path. 

I think it would have been a pity if my Brother had cut-out 
these lines. He did not do so ; but he added to the poem 
two stanzas which are not in the privately printed copy.] 

Penkill. 
I October [i%6g\. 

Dear W. M. — Spottiswoode has sent me a revise (one 
also sent to you). I have made the various corrections you 
pointed out as necessary in your last. . . . 



470 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Gabriel writes me he has done the best he has )'et 
accomplished in the Ede7i Boiuei% and that it drove Maria and 
Christina out of the room. . . . 

I still want him to try a reconsideration of the two last 
lines of TJie Sea-Margin. He tells me you thought them 
the soul of the verses. This may be true, at least they give 
the necessary completion to the idea ; and 1 feel that their 
expression is also in harmony with the sentiment. Still, 
they have the boy's love of quaintness, and are in a certain 
way vapid. He would not write so now. . . . — Ever yours, 

W. B. S. 



252. — Dr Hake to Dante Rossetti. 

[This must be the first, or very nearly the first, letter 
written to Rossetti by Dr Hake, who from this time forward 
became one of his intimates. It was as far back as 1840 that 
Dr Hake had published a strange romance named Vates, or 
the PJiilosopJiy of Madtiess : my Brother read it (perhaps 
towards 1844), and was struck by its singular qualities. After 
some few years he wrote endeavouring to trace the author of 
Vates, but the two did not actually meet until 1869.] 

ROEHAMPTON. 

8 October 1869. 

My dear Sir, — Your kind letter gives me so much pleasure 
and encouragement, I find it impossible to express myself in 
any other way than by explaining to you what just cause I 
have of gratitude. You will understand me when I tell you 
that I have from time to time addressed myself to publishers, 
and to some few literary friends, without avail ; and that your 
reception of me, crowned by your letter, constitutes the first 
act of sympathy that my endeavours have ever called forth. 
That you should have not only appreciated my writing but 
have avowed it so generously is unique in the history of my 
life, and is an exception to the estimate I had formed of the 



WILLIAM BELL SCOTT, 1869 471 

literary character. When you spoke to me so feelingly, as to 
one who deserved something of the world, I felt ashamed ; as 
one might feel who accepted honour that he had not earned. 
Let me end this explanation by saying that you have been 
the means of restoring me to my confidence in human nature. 

That you could not so have acted, or have written to me 
as you have done, except through real conviction, I know 
fully ; and yet I would ask you to let the whole weight of 
obligation rest with me alone, so sincere is the pleasure it 
yields me. 

I have always been unwilling to believe that I had been 
working outside the limits of human sympathy, having been 
constantly affected by whatever was great in another. And, 
should you finally be confirmed in your thought that a unity 
pervades our views, my hope is that I may enjoy your con- 
fidence, and one day your friendship ; and that we may look 
together into some of the great problems of nature and art. 
Your translations will be my study for a long time to come ; 
they open to me a new world of beauty, and I perceive how 
greatly they will strengthen me in some things, and correct 
me in others. — I am, my dear Sir, always yours sincerely, 

T. G. Hake. 



253. — William Bell Scott to William Rossettl 

Penkill. 
II October [1869]. 

Dear W. — On reading over the proof again after the post 
has gone, I find I must trouble you with another note 
preparatory to your looking at the revise. 

P. iv. . . . 

I really think if I were to die next day by the hangman, 
as penalty for leaving uncorrected blunders, I should infallibly 
go to the scaffold. — Yours, 

W. B. Scott. 



472 HOSSETTI PAPERS 

Dear W. — I open this again to say something about 
Gabriel's MS. book, as your note received this morning does 
not mention it. Sitting here by ourselves, a subject of that 
kind was sure to be canvassed between us ; but, as he told 
me how nervous he was about what his own family might 
feel about the measure necessary to be taken to recover it, he 
may not have yet broken the subject to you. If so, I ought 
not to have done so, and I must ask you to keep silence. 
There was evidently a great deal of painful feeling to over- 
come in his mind. 



254. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[16 Cheyne Walk. 
14 October 1869.] 

Private. 

Dear Brown, — I have seen Graham to-day, and I hope I 
have made it all right about Shields. He had called on 
S[hields] the other day in Manchester, but he was from home. 
He talked to me about the matter, and the end was that he 
said he would write at once and fix the commission. 

I went to-day to see those MSS. at the Doctor's, and I 
shall be able to have them in a few days. They are in a dis- 
appointing state. The things I have already seem mostly 
perfect, and there is a great hole right through all the leaves 
oi Jenny, which was the thing I most wanted. A good deal 
is lost ; but I have no doubt the things as they are will enable 
me, with a little re-writing and a good memory and the 
rough copies I have, to re-establish the whole in a perfect 
state. — Your affectionate 

Gabriel. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869 473 



255. — William Rossetti to Dante Rossettl 

Somerset House. 
14 October [1869]. 

Dear Gabriel, — What you write me is not entirely new to 
me. Scott, writing on 1 1 October, and supposing no doubt 
that I was aufait, mentioned the fact: then, finding reason 
to doubt my privity, he wrote again, to say so and impose 
silence. But I shall and should be silent anyhow. 

My frank opinion is that you have acted right on both 
occasions. Under the pressure of a great sorrow, you per- 
formed an act of self-sacrifice : it did you honour, but was 
clearly a work of supererogation. You have not retracted 
the self-sacrifice, for it has taken actual effect in your being 
bereaved of due poetic fame these seven and a half years 
past : but you now think — and I quite agree with you — that 
there is no reason why the self-sacrifice should have no 
term. 

There was no reason at all why you should mention the 
matter to me beforehand : you and I know each other of old, 
and shall continue so to do till (or perhaps after) one of us is 
a bogy. 

Did Tebbs, when you consulted him on the legal compli- 
cation, tell you that he had already of late been starting the 
subject to me ? He did so one day that he called here while 
you were at Penkill : urging that the book ought to be 
recovered, and that he could obtain you a " faculty " without 
your personal intervention from first to last : and I promised 
him that, if a proper opening offered, I would represent it 
to you. . . . — Your 

W. M. R. 

How Tebbs had heard of the matter I can't say : but 
indeed everybody had heard of it. For myself, I had never 
broached the subject to living soul. . . . 



474 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



256. — Dr Garnett to William Rossettl 

British Museum. 
15 October 1869. 

My dear Rossetti, — Many thanks for your kind letter. I 
am much obHged for the offer of a photograph of Miss 
Curran's portrait, which I do not possess. . . . By the way, I 
find by a memorandum that the portrait was begun on 7 May, 
the day after the affair at the post-office. This shows 
that Shelley could not have pursued the person who assaulted 
him. . . . 

You ought to see Kirkpatrick Sharpe's volume of etchings, 
if you have not seen it already. 

The reference to the Relics about Leigh Hunt was not 
intended to qualify anything you had said, but merely to 
point out another instance of Shelley's generosity to him, the 
more remarkable as I believe that Shelley was at that time 
thinking very seriously about regulating his affairs. . . . 

I have just been collating what Middleton calls the Essay 
on Prophecy with Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-politicus, and 
I find it really is a translation from the second chapter of the 
latter. I do not know who first made the discovery. 

The Mr Grove referred to in my notes is the Rev. Charles 
Grove, Shelley's Cousin, whom I once met at Boscombe. He 
was a very nice old gentleman, and seemed to entertain very 
kindly feelings towards Shelley's memory ; but was no authority 
for anything that had occurred after the elopement with 
Harriet Westbrook. He insisted much on the strength of 
Shelley's attachment to his own Sister, Harriet Grove. . . . — 
Yours very truly, 

Richard Garnett. 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869 475 



257. — John Tupper to William Rossettl 

[" The Baron " was a family nickname bestowed from of 
old upon Alexander Tupper, the writer's younger Brother. 
Two works which John Tupper published anonymously are 
here mentioned : The True Story of Mrs Stowe, and Hiatus, 
or the Void in Modern Education. — I preserve here the 
reference to some translation commenced by my Sister, but 
have forgotten all details, unless the matter is the same as 
that referred to in Nos. 124 and 130,] 

Rugby, 
15 October 1869. 

My dear William, — I have just got the enclosed note from 
the old Baron. It contains advice of his touching a squib I 
have written on the Byron controversy. . . , Anyhow, I must 
do the thing at once or not at all. . , . 

I have not heard from Mrs Sotheby about the translation 
your Sister commenced. I hope she will not be bored with 
it. . . . 

I have not yet seen your review of Hiatus (if it is out?). 
Indeed, I have only seen one notice, and I hear there have 
been several. . . . — Thine, 

J. L. Tupper. 



258. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

[16 Cheyne Walk. 
1869—? October:\ 

Dear Brown, — ... I got those papers to-day from the 
Doctor. They are a sad wreck. . . . — Ever yours, 

D. G. Rossettl 



476 UOSSETTI PAPERS 



259. — Anne Gilchrist to William Rossettl 

20 The Terrace, Gunter Grove. 
17 October 1869. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — ... I would above all things 
avoid entangling myself in comparisons of this poetry with 
the universally accepted masterpieces ; for it is really so new, 
so entirely different in kind and result, that I do not think 
there is any common ground to base a comparison upon. 
Here the Personality is all ; there it is nothing, it entirely 
escapes you. This is often adduced as a proof of Shakespear's 
many-sidedness and breadth of sympathy ; this fact of his own 
individuality being always merged in that of his creations. 
And, with Homer, I suppose people have not yet done disput- 
ing whether Homer is one man at all, or whether the works 
that have so long borne his name were not collected from 
many sources. But Walt Whitman speaks the bare truth 
when he says of his book, " Who touches this touches a man." 
And I cannot but think that this one single fact gives 
vitality to his book in a sense that Homer and Shakespear 
cannot be said to have given it to theirs, and that the com- 
parison I have used between grand architecture and living 
product of nature expresses this as closely and faithfully as a 
simile can. Salisbury Cathedral, to ordinary eyes, rouses 
more admiration and wonder than a tree or a wayside daisy 
— but then that mysterious fact of life, and of being the con- 
taining source of an infinite succession of lives ! Thus it is, I 
think, that Whitman's poems, which look externally so far 
less imposing and grandly beautiful than Shakespear's, will 
become a living power in men and women in a sense that 
Shakespear's cannot for a moment pretend to have ever been. 
They will make men not only write poetry, but live poetry. 
. . . — Yours very truly, 

Anne Gilchrist. 



JAMES THURSFIELD, 1869 477 



260. — James Thursfield to Dante Rossetti. 

[Mr Stanhope here mentioned must be Mr J. R. Spencer 
Stanhope, the Painter, who had himself borne a part in the 
pictorial decoration of the Union Debating-hall. Mr Tebbs 
(who has been previously mentioned) was Mr H. Virtue 
Tebbs, who, to the regret of a wide circle of artistic and 
other friends, died in 1899. — The passage about "Helen's 
Cup" has reference to Rossetti's ballad Troy Town: he had 
wished to trace the classical source of a legend concerning 
a cup dedicated by Helen to Aphrodite.] 

North Grove, Oxford, 
26 October 1869. 

My dear Sir, — I have been asked by a Committee of 
the Oxford Union Society to write to you on the subject 
of the Frescoes in the Debating-room executed some years 
ago by yourself and your friends. You will doubtless recol- 
lect that your own contribution to the series was left un- 
finished ; and the Committee are anxious to know whether 
you would be disposed either to finish it, or to suggest some 
method of covering the blank space in the middle of the 
picture. It has been suggested to us by Mr Stanhope that 
this unsightly blank might be filled (in the event of your 
not being disposed to complete the picture) with a simple 
diaper ; but we are unwilling to entertain this or any other 
suggestion until we have ascertained from you what are 
your own wishes on the subject. Should you sanction this 
plan, you will confer a great favour on us if you will kindly 
communicate to us any suggestions you may feel inclined 
to make as to the design or colours of the diaper to be 
used : but I need hardly say how much we should prefer 
that the fresco should be finished by the hand of him who 
commenced it. 

You will be sorry to hear that several of the other 
frescoes are already beginning to show signs of decay : we 



478 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

shall be greatly obliged if you can make any suggestion 
for their more efficient preservation, for I need hardly say 
how anxious we are to preserve them, . . . 

I sent a few days ago to our common friend Tebbs a 
note on the subject of Helen's Cup, about which you were 
seeking information when I had the pleasure of dining at 
your house a short time ago. I am sorry the note is not 
more complete ; but I cannot trace the story beyond Pliny, 
nor can I find any mention of the subject in Greek authors. 
The commentators on Pliny seem one and all to have 
overlooked the passage. — I am faithfully yours, 

James R. Thursfield. 



261. — Frederic Shields to Dante Rossetti. 

CoRNBROOK Park [Manchester]. 
29 October 1869. 

My dear Rossetti, — Last week I had a note from dear 
Brown in which he told me that you were not painting, 
but still writing or correcting poetry. This makes me fear 
that your stay in Ayrshire has done you no good, and that 
in some way, either in your eyesight or otherwise, you are 
still suffering so much that you cannot pursue the work 
you love. I am greatly your debtor for the long, full, kind 
letter you wrote to me while there — as well as for your 
good offices with Graham, , . , 

How sad your thoughtful talks with W, B, Scott upon 
all that poor Craven's affliction suggested must have been ! 
The philosopher is as blind here as the Christian, and, if 
he be not both, without the consolations which support the 
latter. I have seen but little of Mr Scott, and that at 
your table ; but I know and greatly esteem much that he 
has done — especially as one of the most original designers 
living, whenever he likes to put his full force into his 
work ; and I beg through you to return, if I may, my love 
with my admiration, in answer to his own kind message. 



FREDERIC SHIELDS, 1869 479 

I wish that M[adox] Brown had been able to join you 
as you expected. He is too much closed up in-doors, and 
a blow of glen air would have done him great good — as 
his company would have done you also. He was like 
friend and father to me in London during my last visit. 

I am so glad that you have been doing business with 
Agnew profitably ; for these frequent illnesses of yours will 
inevitably bring down your purse, and make the where- 
withal an anxious subject in spite of all determination to 
hold up bravely. I know this too well in recent experience ; 
and for this reason as well as for others I cannot consent 
to accept anything from you, even though pressed upon 
me with your generous importunity. . . , 

The writer in Tinslcy certainly appreciates your work 
in both arts — and I was on the whole thankful for the 
article. . . . The notice of your Sister, Miss Christina Ros- 
setti, was very disappointing ; . . . stretched out to its re- 
quired length by pecking at slight faults in her poems. 
But he cannot spoil my happiness in them, which is as 
great, from some of her devotional pieces, as any that 
poetry has ever afforded me. After this the Judgment and 
the Martyrs' Song are not easily matchable in religious 
poetry. As I sit now looking over her last volume again, 
and recalling the impressions left on me by frequent read- 
ings of it, it appears almost invidious to select from these 
devotional pieces. The Despised and Rejected and the Dost 
Thou not Care must come from her deepest heart's thoughts 
or experiences — and they find full-sounding echo in my 
own heart. The critic is deaf to all this, and (so) deaf to 
what is best in your Sister, and forces the sweetest notes 
from her. . . . 

It is so good of you to send me such plain and elaborate 
instructions about the three-chalk method on grey paper. 
The opportunity you allowed me of watching you at work 
was still more valuable to me, and I think as a conse- 
quence that the drawings I have done for Graham will 
turn out successfully. . . . — Ever affectionately yours, 

Fredc. J. Shields. 



480 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



262. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossettl 

Florence, Ponte Vecchio 2. 
30 October 1869. 

My dear Rossetti, — Trelawny might write a good book 
about Byron, but perhaps it would not be so favourable as 
what he knows of Shelley, to whom he was much more 
attached. Byron's temper did not quite suit him, he was 
too vain and capricious ; but he knew the value of Trelawny, 
and his sincerity as a staunch friend, and as strong in mind 
as he was in body. The more you know of him, the more 
you will esteem him. , . . 

I don't know much of Mrs Stowe or Lady Byron ; but 
I believe they were both of them priest-ridden bigots and 
tories, the latter certainly. . . . 

I was 81 last May. ... I have seen Lord Vernon's 
Dante at the Magliabecchian. . . . The prints are all mixed 
higgledy-piggledy, and some omitted, perhaps lost. I had 
designed one for the head of each Canto, and a vignette 
for the end of each, with thirty for the preface. One thing 
Lord Vernon was delighted with — the Zodiac. It should 
turn round the globe, which is fixed ; instead of which, it 
is the globe which is made to turn round, contrary to 
Dante's opinion. You can correct it in your copy. . . . 

Is Holman-Hunt in England? and his brother-in-law 
the sculptor, who seemed to me a hearty, good, sincere 
fellow — Woolner ? 

I hope Trelawny will take the advice of his publisher 
and give us a volume of anecdotes of Byron and many 
others. He has seen so much of the world at home and 
abroad, and he is a descriptive philosopher of great energy ; 
and all agree that he is a just man, even those that one 
would not expect. 

Write soon if I can be of any use. — Ever yours sincerely, 

Seymour Kirkup. 



JOHN TUPPER, 1869 481 



263. — John Tupper to William Rossettl 

[The North British Review, here mentioned, contained a 
moderate-sized notice by me of Mr Tapper's book, Hiatus, 
or the Void in Modern Education. — I forget about Ruskin's 
dictum that Leonardo da Vinci was " a tenth-rate painter " : 
one ought to look-up the passage in its context. I presume 
that Ruskin was referring simply or principally to Da Vinci's 
qualifications in the technique of painting — his attainment 
as a colourist and brushman : if so, of course no record of 
his cartoon, the Fight for the Standard, would be of any 
relevance, nor yet any evidence deducible from " engravings 
and reliefs."] 

Rugby. 
30 October 1869. 

My dear William, — There is a remembrance with me 
that you purposed sending your copy of The Noi^th British 
for my benefit. Do not, if you please, for I have one here 
on the table, 

I like your article very much indeed ; and am con- 
trasting, with the production of another critic, the inherent 
evidence which your short criticism bears of your having 
fairly read the book you treat of. 

Yes, I was too conscious that " the eminently emotional 
Mr Ruskin " started or championed that precious theory of 
Greek insensibility to landscape-beauty ; and I was con- 
scious while I wrote that, if it had not been beside my 
task to make psychological vivisections, there would have 
been found no better subject to exhibit the want of co- 
ordination of reason and emotion than Mr R[uskin] ; more 
especially if a healthy, calm, deliberative rational faculty 
should have to be co-ordinated with emotion more sympa- 
thetic with the higher and deeper beauty of form than with 
the (comparatively) surface-beauty of colour (which, remem- 
ber, scares and excites cattle not human). 

Ruskin has no /^rw-faculty. How long ago is it that 

2 H 



482 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

he told you he did not "understand or affect sculpture"? 
I remember this well, because it seemed a little surprising 
that such a state of humanity could well agree with art- 
criticism. This was when you took me to the Working 
Men's Col[lege], and in answer to some proposition that 
Mr R[uskin] should examine some sculptural work of your 
friend's. Co-ordination seems alien from Ruskin's nature 
both emotional and sciential. . . . He is pre-eminently in- 
surgent, lawless, autocratic, in art. Whilst the many engrav- 
ings and reliefs of The Last Supper and The Fight for the 
Standard exist, will not the ages laugh at the critic who 
thought Da Vinci a tenth-rate painter? . . . Beauty means 
law and obedience to law. . . . 

Lastly, do we not call those we love most " Angels " and 
" Goddesses " ? Does this show that our wives are " not 
intensely sympathetic objects to " us ? . . . — Yours ever, 

J. L. TUPPER. 



264. — James Thursfield to Dante Rossetti. 

North Grove, Oxford. 
14 Novetnber 1869. 

My dear Sir, — The Union on Thursday passed a resolu- 
tion empowering the Fresco-Committee "to expend a sum 
not exceeding ;^ioo on the completion of Mr Rossetti's 
fresco." We are now therefore in a position to ask you to 
make the arrangements you proposed. . . . Perhaps I may 
explain that our request that you would name the sum 
necessary to be expended did not spring from any desire 
on the part of the Committee to engage you in any 
responsibility, or to draw you into a contract with the 
Society : we are too sensible of the kindness and generosity 
with which you have placed your time and trouble at their 
disposal to think of anything of the kind. Our only wish 
was to obtain on competent authority an estimate which 
we were wholly unable to form for ourselves. The selec- 



PONSONBY LYONS, 1869 483 

tion of the artist to be employed will, of course, rest with 
you : it will be for us, I presume, to arrange with him the 
remuneration he is to receive, and to contract with him for 
the execution of the work. — I am faithfully yours, 

James R. Thursfield. 



265. — CoNTE Giuseppe Ricciardi to William Rossetti 

— ( Translation). 

Naples. 
16 November 1869. 

My dear William, — Welcome beyond what I can say 
did I find your valued letter of the loth ; and especially 
so for the adhesion to the Anti-Council signed by you and 
Mr S[winburne]. I hope to be able to have it printed in 
the English paper here, The Observer. . . . Would you believe 
it? The solitary adhesion which has come to me from 
your country is yours and Mr S[winburne]'s ! — while I have 
had hundreds from all other lands. . . . — Always your most 
affectionate 

G. Ricciardi. 



266. — By PoNSONBY Lyons — Lilitii. 

[I found this curious writing among MSS. left by my 
Brother, It stands headed — "Thurs. 18 Nov. 1869 — To the 
Editor of T/ie Athenmini'' \ and is signed and addressed 
as here shown. I have looked into The AthencEuin for 
some weeks about that date, but have not found there any 
trace of such a paper. I do not recognize the name of 
the writer. So far as I can guess, my Brother, having 
painted a picture named Lady Lilith, and having written 
the ballad of Eden Bower which also concerns this legendary 
personage, may have consulted an acquaintance of his as 



484 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

to the particulars of the Lilith tradition ; and this person 
must have composed the present writing, and been minded 
to get it printed in The Athenceuin. It seems to me of 
sufficient interest to be preserved.] 

5 Royal Avenue Terrace, Chelsea. 
1 8 November 1869. 

Lilith, about whom you ask for information, was evidently 
the first strong-minded woman and the original advocate of 
women's rights. At present she is a queen of the demons. 
When King Nebuchadnezzar, as we are told in the Sepher ben 
Sira, enquired why so many children died before the eighth 
day, and why it is proper to write and hang up on their rooms 
the words " Sannoi Sansennoi Samangeloph," Ben Sira in 
reply told him the history of Lilith. When Adam was 
created, God made a woman also out of the earth, for it is 
said, " Male and female created He them ; " and, when He 
said " It is not good for man to dwell alone," he brought her 
to Adam. They at once began to dispute. Lilith refused to 
obey Adam, saying they were both quite equal, for they were 
made from the same earth ; and she ended this jangling by 
pronouncing the secret name of God, and by virtue of it flew 
away through the air. Adam prayed to God, saying, " Lord 
of the world, the wife whom Thou hast given me has flown 
away, and I know not where she is." God sent after her three 
angels, Sannoi", Sansennoi, and Samangeloph, the three lords 
of healing. They overtook her in the sea, in the place where 
the Egyptians were afterwards drowned. It was very stormy, 
and they threatened to drown her. She said : " Let me go, 
for I have been created only that I may injure infants; for I 
have power over boys for eight days, and over girls for twenty 
days." The angels made her swear by the name of the living 
God that, wherever she found them or their names or like- 
nesses written or painted, she would do no harm to the infants ; 
and they told her that her punishment should be that one- 
hundred of her sons should die every day. This is the reason 
that one-hundred of the devils die daily. For in three things, 
as Moses Nachmani tells us, they resemble angels ; they have 



PONSONBY LYONS, 1869 485 

wings, they fly about, and they foretell the future ; and in 
three things they resemble men ; they eat and drink, they 
propagate their race, and they die. Their bodies, being 
formed of two elements, fire and air (though not from all four, 
like men, animals, plants, and minerals), are capable of dis- 
solution. Hence also it is that the Jews, especially those of 
Germany, write on the four walls of the room in which a 
woman is confined, " Adam Chava chutz Lilith " — that is, 
" Adam, Eve, — Lilith keep away " : — " Stulte putantes" says 
Wierus, " tale dcB)nonis terricul amentum et injuria ed ratione 
arceri posse ; " and, on the inside of the door, the names of the 
three angels, Sannoi, SansennoT, and Samangeloph. The 
Husband should say certain prayers for three days ; and after 
three days cold water should be poured round the bed, with 
other ceremonies. And amulets are hung round the necks of 
the infants to keep away Lilith. 

According to another account, Lilith remained with Adam 
until Eve was brought to him. She then fled to the sea, and 
was preparing to destroy the world when she was called away 
by God. 

After the expulsion from Paradise, during the 130 years 
in which Adam was excommunicated and lived apart from 
Eve, Lilith lived with him against his will, and brought forth 
many devils. His stature had then been reduced to 100 ells ; 
and we may suppose that Lilith treated him as arbitrarily as 
some dwarfs have been treated by their tall wives. These 
devils, according to the book Einek Hameiek, are always 
troubled and sigh, and there is no joy among them. During 
this 130 years, Adam, according to the Talmud (Eruvin) 
became the father of the spirits (Rukin), devils (Shedim), and 
Lilin (or female devils). Bartholoccius objects that Adam 
and Lilith were both made of the earth : " Quo modo igitur ex 
amborum conjunctione lemures et spiritiis gigni potuerint ? " 
But the book ZoJiar Kadash supplies a very simple answer : 
Lilith was made of the uncleanness and dregs of the earth, 
and not from flesh like Eve. 

Lilith is one of the four wives of Samael (Satan) who are 
the mothers of the devils. According to Talkut Kadash, 



486 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Mdchalath, another of his wives, has 487 troops of evil angels 
under her, and always skips and dances. Lilith has 480, and 
always howls. These two are constantly at war, except on 
the annual day of atonement. According to the Talmud 
{Sabboth, EriiviJi, Niddd) Lilith has long hair, and wings, and 
leads a great army of devils, and has power to seize whoever 
sleeps alone in a house. Therefore Rabbi Chaninah said, " It 
is forbidden to sleep alone in a house." According to Emek 
Hamelek, Leviathan the bad serpent is Samael, and 
Leviathan the crooked serpent is Lilith ; and, when infants 
laugh without any apparent cause, Lilith is playing with 
them, that she may please them and take them away. In 
this case you should strike the child on its nose, and say to 
Lilith, " Away, thou accursed, thou hast no abode here." 

In conclusion : although the wise are agreed that devils 
can appear in the human form, and therefore you should not 
first salute any one you may meet suddenly in a dark passage 
lest he may be a devil, yet for sake of poetical and picturesque 
feeling I grieve to be obliged to record in your valuable 
columns, on the high authority of the book Zohar, that, when 
devils do appear to men in the human form, they have no 
hair on their heads. — I remain yours faithfully, 

PONSONBY A. Lyons. 



267. — William Graham to Dante Rossettl 

[Mr Graham, who was then M.P. for Glasgow, appears to 
have commissioned ere now " the great picture " — />., the 
Dante's Dream which is at present in the Walker Art-Gallery, 
Liverpool : probably the work had not as yet been begun on 
the canvas. He now commissions two water-colours : a 
Pandora, and a " Blue Lady" which I understand to be the 
same thing as TJie Portrait of Mrs Morris — viz., a water- 
colour duplicate of that oil-picture which is now deposited in 
the National British Gallery. A third water-colour, a duplicate 
from the Sibylla Pahnifera belonging to Mr George Rae, 



WILLIAM GRAHAM, 1869 487 

seems to have been previously agreed upon : also " the 
Nightingale picture," comprising a portrait of William 
Graham Junior. This is, I think, the picture now named 
Mariana, from Measure for Measure.'] 

Urrard, Pitlochrie. 
[1869 — ? November]. 

My dear Rossetti, — I have your note of yesterday, and 
need scarcely say I do wish the picture Found to be mine. I 
did not know what price you thought of charging for it ; but 
I will ask you to put ;^8oo on it instead of 800 guineas, as I 
have a Scotchman's dislike to the \diitQV piece de vionnaie, and 
I think my patience is a legitimate claim for the discount ! I 
shall send you a remittance from Glasgow, where I am going 
to-morrow for one day only. 

Do however, like a kind friend, have a little compassion 
on me, and try and let me have something soon. Remember, 
except the crayon-drawings I have never had a single bit of 
Rossetti to put upon my walls ; and, besides the great picture 
for which one may thankfully wait ever so longtWX the inspira- 
tion comes, I have been hoping for the Pabnifera in water- 
colour, and my little son Willie in oil ere now (once called the 
" Nightingale " picture). 

Thanks for the offer of the Pandora and the Portrait of 
Mrs Morris. I shall be very pleased if you will let me have 
both, if within my reach in price. 350 guineas is what you 
were to charge me for the Palmifera, and also I think for the 
Blue Lady when you first proposed to do it in water-colour 
for me. Of course I shall with pleasure make you what 
advance you care to have on these also ; only do, like a good 
fellow, let me have my reward soon. — Ever, with kind regards, 
yours sincerely, 

W. Graham. 



488 IlOSSETTI PAPERS 



268. — Dante Rossetti to Willia^i Graham. 

[My Brother kept a copy of this letter — as he did with 
many of his business-letters. The copy is imperfect, closing 
in the middle of a sentence.] 

[16 Cheyne Walk.] 
29 Novefnber 1869. 

My dear Graham, — I waited to answer your kind letter 
till I could acknowledge the remittance which you proposed 
to send next day from Glasgow. As I have not yet received 
this, I write lest by possibility it should have miscarried. 

When you first expressed a wish to have the Found picture, 
I named 800 guineas as its price, and you agreed thereto. I 
do not mention this because I hesitate to meet the wish you 
express in the matter, after all your friendly conduct, but 
merely because I remember mentioning the price in my last 
as " agreed on." This, you will perceive, is the picture of all 
others of which I should not, under ordi?iary circumstances, 
abate the price, as it is of quite an exceptionally popular kind 
among my works ; nor should I indeed have asked less than 
1000 guineas at this moment of any one but yourself — not 
even of Agnew. It is now somewhat larger than before, as 
I have had the canvas increased to give more space. In now 
engaging it to you for ;^8oo, copyright, which I retain, will 
doubtless prove of value one day, and I make no doubt of 
selling a replica to great advantage. So be it as you wish. I 
know how well you deserve the best I can give you at the 
earliest date, and shall have quite as great pleasure as yourself 
in seeing that I am fairly represented among your pictures 
that you love and live with. I hope this may be the case ere 
long. . . . 



WILLIAM DAVIES, 1869 489 



269. — William Graham to Dante Rossettl 

Edinburgh. 
I Decemder [iS6g]. 

My dear Rossetti, — I have been away travelling, and 
on my arrival here this evening find your kind note 
of 29th. . . . 

As regards the Found, I can only say thanks very much 
for your acquiescence in my proposal as to price. Evidently 
however I was very stupidly mistaken in not having remem- 
bered that we had spoken of price before ; and I could not of 
course for a moment think of availing of your good nature to 
alter what had been once settled. It must therefore, as a 
matter of course, remain as originally intended ; and I need 
not say I have no doubt of its being well worth the value put 
upon it. . . . — Ever yours sincerely, 

W. Graham. 



270.— William Davies to Dante Rossetti. 

[Of my Brother's numerous friends and acquaintances, 
few entered more sensitively into his feelings, or showed a 
more constant wish to soothe them when perturbed, than 
Mr Davies — who must, I suppose, have been introduced 
into Rossetti's studio by Mr Smetham. Mr Davies was a 
writer and poet of various graceful gifts, and an adept at 
pen-and-ink drawing and etching on a small scale : his 
principal published work was The Book of the Tiber. Some 
little while after my Brother's death, Mr Davies very liber- 
ally presented me with the various letters which the former 
had written to him, bound up into a volume. Mr Davies 
himself, having for years been something of an invalid, 
died towards 1897.] 



490 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



io6 Albion Road, Stoke Newington. 
2 December 1869. 

My dear Rossetti, — I have copied you out two Italian 
sonnets of Matteo Frescobaldi on the other side, which I 
think you will not have seen. About the first there is a 
beautiful delicacy and simplicity, which gives freshness to 
a sentiment not new. The second seems to me to repre- 
sent a class of composition — a large one — of which I do 
not recollect to have seen any sample in your book of 
translations. Stupidly enough, I have not taken any note 
of the date of this writer ; but I fancy he lies within your 
circle or impinging upon it. . . . — Always yours faithfully 
and truly, 

W. Davies. 

I think, if you publish a second edition of your Italian 
Poets, you ought to give at least one of the parodies on 
the Months of Folgore da San Gemignano, by Cene della 
Chitarra. There is one, I recollect (given I think in Nan- 
nucci), wishing the guests old women instead of young, 
overdone meats, etc., which struck me as being excessively 
funny — if you do not think your book too serious for such 
" flouting." 

You of course know the little " diamond " volume of 
Cino da Pistoia and his circle published by Barbera in 
Florence. It contains some exquisite things, some of which 
were new to me. 



Sonetti di Matteo Frescobaldi : dalle sue Rime raccolte 
da Giosue Carducci : Pistoia, 1866. . . . 
lo veggo il tempo della primavera. . . . 
Per riposarsi in su le calde piume. . . . 



271. — Dante Rossetti to William Davies. 

[The " little tale " which Rossetti sent to Mr Davies was 
Hand and Soul, first printed in The Germ, and afterwards 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869 491 

privately reprinted. — The " lovely sofa " had been a part 
of Mr Smetham's household property, and was about the 
only article of a noticeably artistic character which he used. 
Finding that my Brother, then ardent in collecting furniture 
etc., particularly admired the sofa, he munificently presented 
it to him. It remained with Rossetti up to his death, and 
was sold among his other effects in July 1882. In the 
Sale-catalogue it was entered as — " A sofa or lounge with 
cane seat, the back artistically painted in figures and land- 
scapes, the frame of the painted-furniture period ; squab 
and two pillows, upholstered in stamped green velvet : a 
very rare and valuable specimen," Mr Locker-Lampson 
bought this sofa for £'j4. 13s.: he made the bidding on be- 
half of some other person.] 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
3 Deceinber 1869. 

My dear Davies, — Many thanks for the two Frescobaldi 
sonnets — the first very pretty indeed. I know not Matteo — 
query, a Brother of Dino ? They seem likely to belong to 
that time certainly. 

I am not acquainted with the little Cino book you speak 
of, and should like to see it some day. 

I considered the question as to translating Cene della 
Chitarra's chaff, and have a note about it : but it seemed 
almost impracticable, as his sonnets are written to the same 
rhymes as Folgore's, and this could hardly have been 
preserved. 

By the by, if you look again at my book you will find 
that the large section of " moral injunction " poetry is pretty 
abundantly represented from Guinicelli and others. 

I was interested in the two reviews you sent, and return 
The Scotsman. Certainly with such recognition your book 
ought to have been at least a tolerable commercial success. 
These two are amusingly contradictory on some points, as 
usual. 

I send you with this a little tale written long ago. I had 
included it among the poems I am printing, as it is really 



492 HOSSETTI PAPERS 

more a sort of poem than anything else : but, coming to the 
conclusion after all that it looked awkward there, I had a few 
copies struck off to give away. I send one for Smetham too 
when you see him. 

Will you tell him that the lovely sofa he gave me has just 
come home from the restorer's, with every pattern made 
perfect again, and the tone of the whole most exquisite. It 
is a gem. — Ever yours sincerely, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 



272. — W. J. Stillman to William Rossettl 

Washington. 
17 December 1869. 

My dear Rossetti, — I have just seen Whitman — had a 
ride with him in the horse-car up Pennsylvania Avenue (if 
you are any wiser for that), and a long talk principally about 
you, whose history (as far as I know it) and that of your 
family I gave him. He is employed in the Attorney-General's 
Office, and seems more well-to-do than when I saw him before. 
He is certainly a man of remarkable personal qualities — full 
and harmonious life. . . . He is grey as a badger — white, I 
should say. . . . — Yours affectionately, 

W. J. Stillman. 



273. — Dante Rossetti — Nonsense Verses. 

[I here give twenty specimens of the " Nonsense Verses " 
at which Dante Rossetti was a " dab hand " : so far as my 
knowledge goes, he surpassed all his competitors, of whom 
there were several. A passage from W. B. Scott's Autobio- 
graphical Notes may as well be extracted. — " The habit of 
making satirical rhymes like these \i.e., like some of Franz 
Hueffer's writing, just quoted by Scott] was an outcome of 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869 493 

the appearance of Lear's Book of Nonsense. D. G. R. began 
the habit with us — the difficulty of finding a rhyme for the 
name being often the sole inducement. Swinburne assisted 
him, and all of us ; and every day for a year or two they used 
to fly about. The dearest friends and most intimate acquaint- 
ances came in for the severest treatment ; but, as truth was 
the last thing intended (though sometimes slyly implied), 
nobody minded." The present specimens are all that I 
remember, written by my Brother (allowing for one other, on 
Oliver Brown, which appears in Mr Ford Hueffer's book) ; they 
are certainly a mere fraction of his full quota. They appear 
to me to date between some such years as i860 and 1870: 
on this assumption I group them all here together as if proper 
to the close of 1869. Nos. i to 6 and 8 to 12 were written 
out from memory by my Wife at a comparatively recent time, 
say 1890, and are I think very nearly correct. No, 7 comes 
from Mr Harry Ouilter's book Preferences in Art etc. (1892). 
Nos. 13 and 14 are supplied by my own recollection, and No. 

19 from the memory of one of my daughters. Nos. 15 
to 18, and No. 20, are given in Scott's book, and I have 
thought it, on the whole, as well to repeat them here. Mr 
Scott's memory for such things was anything but accurate : I 
have introduced a few corrections. It is certain, for instance, 
that Rossetti never composed such a miserably metreless line 
as that which Scott gives as the last line of No. 17 — 

" This stubborn donkey called Scotus," 

and I even doubt whether the diction here is at all correct. 
I have some suspicion to the same effect with regard to No. 

20 : in fact I have altered one word. In No, 18 Scott's book 
gives the meaningless word " checkboard " instead of " chess- 
board." — I do not enter into further particulars in relation to 
any of these Nonsense Verses. Several people will under- 
stand who are the persons meant, and what reason (or un- 
reason perchance) there was for referring to them in these 
burlesque terms : as regards Nos, 5, 6, and 7, there was no 
reason. Other people, who have no insight into the matter, 
can afford to remain unenlightened. Let me add that I don't 



494 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

know of any Nonsense Verses regarding myself: that there 
were some such I have little doubt.] 

I. 
There is a big Artist named Val, 
The roughs' and the prize-fighters' pal : 

The mind of a groom 

And the head of a broom 
Were Nature's endowments to Val. 



There is a dull Painter named Wells 
Who is duller than any one else : 
With a face like a horse 
He sits by you and snorts — 
Which is very offensive in Wells. 

3- 
There's an infantine Artist named Hughes- 
Him and his the R.A.'s did refuse : 

At length, though, among 

The lot, one was hung — 
But it was himself in a noose. 

4. 
There's a babyish party named Burges 
Who from infancy hardly emerges : 

If you had not been told 

He's disgracefully old, 
You would offer a bull's-eye to Burges. 

5- 
There is a young person named Georgie 
Who indulges each night in an orgy : 

Soda-water and brandy 

Are always kept handy 
To efface the effects of that orgy. 

6. 
There is a young Artist named Jones 
Whose conduct no genius atones : 

His behaviour in life 

Is a pang to the wife 
And a plague to the neighbours of Jones. 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869 495 

7- 
There is a young Painter called Jones 
(A cheer here, and hisses, and groans) : 

The state of his mind 

Is a shame to mankind, 
But a matter of triumph to Jones. 



There's a Painter of Portraits named Chapman 
Who in vain would catch woman or trap man 

To be painted life-size 

More preposterous guys 
Than they care to be painted by Chapman. 



9- 
There's a combative Artist named Whistler 
Who is, like his own hog-hairs, a bristler : 

A tube of white lead 

And a punch on the head 
Offer varied attractions to Whistler. 



lO. 

There's a publishing party named Ellis 
Who's addicted to poets with bellies : 
He has at least two — 
One in fact, one in view — 
And God knows what will happen to Ellis. 



II. 
There's a Portuguese person named Howell 
Who lays-on his lies with a trowel : 
Should he give-over lying, 
'Twill be when he's done dying, 
For living is lying with Howell. 



12. 

There is a mad Artist named Inchbold 
With whom you must be at a pinch bold 
Or else you may score 
The brass plate on your door 
With the name of J. W. Inchbold. 



496 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

13- 
A Historical Painter named Brown 
Was in language and manners a clown 
At epochs of victual 
Both pudden and kittle 
Were expressions familiar to Brown. 



14. 
There are dealers in pictures named Agnew 
Whose soft soap would make an old rag new 

The Father of Lies 

With his tail to his eyes 
Cries — " Go it, Tom Agnew, Bill Agnew ! " 

15- 
There's a solid fat German called Huffer, 
A hypochondriacal buffer : 

To declaim Schopenhauer 

From the top of a tower 
Is the highest ambition of Huffer. 

16. 
There's a Scotch correspondent named Scott 
Thinks a penny for postage a lot : 

Books, verses, and letters, 

Too good for his betters. 
Cannot screw out an answer from Scott. 



17. 

There's a foolish old Scotchman called Scotus, 
Most justly a Pictor Ignotus : 

For Avhat he best knew 

He never would do, 
This stubborn [old] donkey called Scotus. 

18. 
There's the Irishman Arthur O'Shaughnessy — 
On the chessboard of poets a pawn is he : 

Though bishop or king 

Would be rather the thing 
To the fancy of Arthur O'Shaughnessy. 



ANNE GILCHRIST, 1870 497 



19. 
There is a young Artist named Knewstub, 
Who for personal cleaning will use tub : 

But in matters of paint 

Not the holiest Saint 
Was ever so dirty as Knewstub. 

20. 
There is a poor sneak called Rossetti, 
As a painter with many kicks met he — 

With more as a man — 

But sometimes he ran, 
And that saved the rear of Rossetti. 



274.— Anne Gilchrist to William Rossetti. 

I January 1870. 

Will you please tell Mr Whitman that he could not have 
devised for me a more welcome pleasure than this letter of his 
to you (now mine, thanks to you and him), and the picture ; 
and that I feel grateful to you for having sent the extracts, 
since they have been a comfort to him. 

I should like also to take this opportunity of saying (if 
you think I may) how much I wish, if Mr Whitman see no 
reason against it, that the new edition should be issued in two 
volumes ; not lettered Vols. I and II, but ist Series and 2nd 
Series, so that they could be priced and sold separately when 
so desired. This simple expedient would, I think, overcome 
a serious difficulty. Those who are not able to receive aright 
all he has written might to their own infinite gain have what 
they can receive, and grow by means of that food to be capable 
of the whole perhaps : while Mr Whitman would stand as 
unflinchingly as hitherto by what he has written. I know I 
am glad that your Selections were put into my hands first, so 
that I was lifted up by them to stand firm on higher ground 
than I had ever stood on before, and furnished with a golden 
key before approaching the rest of the poems. 

2 I 



498 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



275. — William Rossetti — Diary. 

1870. Saturday, i January. — Saw Gabriel's racoon — a 
nice and healthy-looking beast. One of his two kangaroos is 
just dead. , . . 

Sujtday, 20 February. — Wrote a number of letters to 
Shelley correspondents etc. One to Moxon, who now pro- 
poses to omit from the cheap Poets (at least for the present) 
Pope, Thomson, and four volumes of Selections. . . . 

Monday, 2 1 February. — Christina has lately been discussing 
with Macmillan about the publication of a volume of Nursery- 
rhymes which she has written, and the republication of her 
two old volumes. M[acmillan]'s terms are obviously meagre : 
Gabriel has consulted Ellis about it, and writes this morning 
that E[llis] offers £100 for the old poems, and some propor- 
tional sum for the new — a great advance on M[acmillan]. 
This has determined C[hristina] to transfer the publication of 
her books from M[acmillan], and no doubt to E[llis]. 

Tuesday, 22 February. — Gabriel called in Euston Square. 
His racoon, which had been lost for a fortnight or more, was 
lately discovered living in a drawer of the large wardrobe 
which stands outside the studio-door : he was in excellent 
condition, having probably made a practice of prowling about 
the house at night, and eating up any broken victuals. The 
surviving kangaroo, a female, gives promise of a family. Two 
wood-owls were lately bought, apparently so tame that any- 
thing could be done with them : but one of them has now 
killed the other. G[abriel] showed me a letter he lately 
received from Swinburne, saying that V[ictor] Hugo has 
written to thank him for the vindication by S[winburne] 
(lately published in the Telegraph) of H[ugo]'s accuracy 
regarding Xho. peine forte et dure, in L Homme qui Rit : S[win- 
burnej's article has been translated into French. H[ugo] also 
lauds S[winburne]'s savage sonnets against L[ouis] Napoleon 
in the Fortnightly. Gabriel has now been re-reading Shelley 
a good deal — Prometheus and other poems ; and has come to 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1870 499 

much the same conclusion which I have expressed time out 
of mind — that Shelley is the greatest of modern English poets. 
He however inclines to set Byron above him. Hitherto he 
has also preferred Coleridge, Keats, and others. It is no 
longer ago than last Christmas day that he and I had a long 
battle over Shelley and Keats. 

Wednesday, 23 February. — Visited the very fine Exhibition 
of Old Masters at the R.A. : met there Brown, who is very 
unfavourably impressed with the Leslie display — my own 
feeling being the other way. — Stillman, seeing in to-day's 
Daily News a notice (extremely handsome on the whole) of 
my Shelley, proposes to write (as he has some footing on that 
paper) setting in a clearer and more favourable light one or 
two points stated to my disadvantage. I told him that I 
should of course regard this as a friendly act, but don't 
personally much care either way. The chief point is about 
Shelley's separation from Harriet : on which point I might 
myself be minded to uphold the authenticity and newness of 
what I have said, were it not that to do this would be to run 
down Shelley /;'(? tanto. 

Thursday, 24 February. — The Brother of Warington Taylor 
(lately deceased) called on me at Somerset House, — my 
functions as executor to Taylor's will, and trustee for his Wife, 
having now commenced. . . , 

Monday, 28 February. — Called on Macmillan to talk over 
Christina's position with regard to him. ... It is pretty clear 
that he would be ready to raise his offers heretofore made to 
C[hristina]. , . . 

Wednesday, 2 March. — Presented Macmillan with a com- 
parative statement of the offers made to Christina by himself 
and Ellis. . . . Mrs Bodichon offers through Stillman to place 
her house at Robert's Bridge, Sussex, with studio, at Gabriel's 
disposal for a while — or at Stillman's own disposal. This 
seems a very eligible offer ; as G[abriel] wants to get out of 
town a little, with a view to health, and to quiet in writing 
poetry. I began reading through, for press-corrections, the 
new proofs of his volume. S[tillman] says that Mrs B[odichon] 
has no definite belief in or opinion about the existence of the 



500 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

disembodied soul. Her husband, who remains in Algeria, is 
wholly given up now to spiritualism — which she flouts. 

Thursday, 3 March. — Morris, Jones, Ellis, and others, at 
Chelsea. Saw for the first time some of Goya's etchings — 
Gabriel having purchased a volume. Pollen says there is an 
astonishingly fine Japanese painting of a tiger, about life-size, 
at South Kensington : must look it up. Gabriel is doing a 
crayon-head of Mrs Zambaco, very good. Jones has been, to 
his great comfort, incited by my re-edition to the re-reading 
of Shelley. . . . 

Saturday, 5 March. . . .—Christina has about finished a 
longish prose-story named Conivionplace (I have not as yet 
any very clear notion of its bearing) : this, and other slighter 
stories of past time, she proposes to put together, and get 
published by Ellis — who seems quite ready to accept 
them. . . . 

Wednesday, <^ March. — ... I read the MS. of what Maria 
is writing as an incitement and introduction to the study of 
Dante by English people. . . . 

Friday, 1 1 March. — Called on Trelawny : I think he looks 
a little older than he did last summer. He has been writing 
down some further reminiscences of Shelley, which I pressed 
him to publish. This he seems tolerably well inclined to do, 
but objects to the trouble of recopying. I offered to do it for 
him. Miss Clairmont has lately been writing to him at great 
length, also in the way of Shelley reminiscences ; and it 
seems that Elise, the Swiss maid who attended to Allegra, is 
also still alive, and inclined to be reminiscent. T[relawny] 
says he feels hurt at the imputation upon Harriet's moral 
character contained (repeated from other writers) in my 
Memoir : it seems to be new to him, but I can't doubt its 
truth. He insists that Shelley would have separated from 
Mary, but for the unhappy result to Harriet: says M[ary] 
was excessively jealous of S[helley], both sexually and as 
regards the influence of other women over his mind. But he 
seems to think (as far as I can make out) that the sexual 
jealousy was baseless. S[helley] attempted suicide at Naples : 
had also done so in London, but the effects of the poison were 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1870 501 

worked off by walking him about for some hours. T[relawny] 
is now reading with extreme delight Hogg's Life of S\Jiellef\ 
(hitherto unread by him), and considers H[ogg]'s view of 
S[helley] thoroughly consistent with T[relawny]'s own experi- 
ence. " Shelley was more self-willed than myself :" with ex- 
quisite gentleness of manner, he would always do, and do on the 
instant, what he resolved on. I am to dine with T[relawny] 
next Tuesday, and may perhaps meet Mrs Hogg : she never 
professed to be in love with Hogg, but to have been passion- 
ately in love with Williams, and incapable of loving any one 
else. " I have kissed the shirt off his back." Williams was 
decidedly good-looking. . . . 

Sunday, 13 Marcli. — Wrote to Theodoric on various 
matters ; partly to say that, if any effects belonging to 
Kirkup should in course of time be disposed of, I would like 
him to secure for me a sofa-bedstead which, as Trelawny tells 
me, was bought by Shelley at Leghorn for Leigh Hunt. I 
am not clear whether this is the sofa that K[irkup] ordinarily 
sits on, or some other sofa in his house.* 

Monday, 14 March. — . . . Mamma, whose inconveniences 
from deafness appear to have been increasing of late, and to 
some extent affecting the right ear, hitherto free, made up 
her mind at last to consult a doctor (Hare) — as I have advised 
time out of mind. He prescribes injections of glycerine ; and 
I am in hopes some degree of good, at any rate, will result. — 
Gabriel is now at Mrs Bodichon's house — Scaland's Gate, 
Robert's Bridge. 

Ttiesday, 15 March. — Dined with Trelawny: his house 
seems at present to be kept by a niece,-}- to whom I was 
introduced. I am not clear whether he has a Wife or 
Daughter living, but have heard him speak of a Daughter. 
He is and always has been an avowed atheist and materi- 

* It was (I now find) the sofa which Kirkup ordinarily sat on. 
Eventually it came to Trelawny, and from him to me, and it remains one 
of my most valued possessions. 

t Miss Emma Taylor. She was not really Trelawny's niece, nor in 
any way connected with him ; but he spoke of her as his niece for con- 
venience sake. 



502 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

alist, and contemplates annihilation without any repugnance. 
Once, when living in Italy, he saw a little man come up to 
his house, and called through the wicket : " No admittance 
except for atheists and republicans." It was Roebuck. He 
is certain there was no intrigue between Shelley and Mrs 
Williams — " he might as well have wanted the Virgin Mary " ; 
and seems to be also confident that there was no intrigue 
between S[helley] and Emilia Viviani, but in this case he 
seems rather to put it on the grounds of prudential considera- 
tions taken into account by S[helley]. He says S[helley] was 
quite incapable of gross amours with prostitutes etc. : with 
him love as a passion was never dissociated from sentiment, 
nor would even the sight of a beautiful woman have been 
likely to produce much impression upon him, without the 
interest excited by conversation. He read me an amusing 
anecdote of S[helley]'s entering the saloon at Casa Magni 
perfectly naked from the sea-beach, when Mary and Mrs 
Williams, with a lady-visitor from Genoa, were at dinner 
there. The horror which his apparition excited was calmly 
met by the matter-of-fact question : " What else do you 
expect me to do, when my clothes are left in the bedroom, 
and there is no way to the bedroom except through here ? " 
Trelawny describes him as " stag-eyed " — as indicating the 
fixed, full, unblinking gaze which characterized him. His 
body, especially legs and thighs, was finely formed ; and his 
powers of active exertion, as in climbing hills, distanced all 
the company. T[relawny] showed me a letter which he has 
just lately received from Miss Clairmont, now in Florence. 
There is not the least look of age in either its handwriting * 
or subject-matter : it speaks with considerable animus against 
Byron as contrasted with Shelley. . . . 

Sunday, 20 March. — Called to see Nettleship's picture of 
a Lion and Lioness going out to prey by dawnlight. It is 
exceedingly fine in essentials, and has considerable value of 
execution too in some ways, though I fear it will not tell out 
solidly among the pictures at the R.A. Saw also some of his 

* The handwriting (I have since understood) was that of Miss Paola 
Clairmont, a niece of Miss (Clare) Clairmont, living with her. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1870 503 

ideal and other designs : a very fine one embodies the idea 
of prostituted Genius returning to her first love for the 
Truth. . . . 

Thursday, 24 March. — Called on Wallis, who had written to 
me that he possesses a head which, as Peacock had told him, 
gave the best obtainable idea of Shelley's face. It is an out- 
line engraving from the head of Leismann in the Uffizi 
(mentioned in print by Peacock), and probably conveys a 
somewhat different impression from the picture itself, which 
I looked at purposely last year. W[allis] says positively that 
the Shelley portrait, nominally by Miss Curran, exhibited by 
Sir P[ercy] Shelley at Kensington in '68, is not Miss C[urran]'s 
own work ; but is a copy from the portrait painted by Clint, 
which latter was done partly from Miss C[urran]'s, The 
genuine one by Miss C[urran] belongs, he says, to Mrs 
Hogg.* He has not yet seen it, but expects to do so, and 
might perhaps arrange for my accompanying him. He pos- 
sesses a Tacittis which had been given by Shelley to Hogg. 
He was under the impression that one of S[helley]'s bio- 
graphers, probably Hogg (he does not refer to Thornton 
Hunt's assertion), had stated in print that S[helley] was dissi- 
pated with women at some time of his life. On my telling 
him that Hogg decidedly does not say so, nor any other 
printed record written by a personal acquaintance of Shelley, 
he comes to the conclusion that he must have heard it from 
Peacock in conversation. I entertain some doubt as to the 
fact alleged. Wallis believes that Severn knew something 
about Shelley (as to this I have no distinct notion either 
way). The last time W[allis] was in Rome, he met at 
Severn's office Mrs Llanos, Keats's Sister : a large and 
(he says) apparently very ordinary old lady. She has 
children. . . . 

* Was Mr Wallis right as to this matter? I question it ; being still 
rather under the impression that one of the two portraits which used to 
belong to Sir Percy Shelley was the original by Miss Curran, while 
that which belonged to Mrs Hogg (and afterwards to her daughter Mrs 
Lonsdale) was the copy made by Clint. Both these works are now in the 
National Portrait Gallery. 



504 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Sunday, 27 Mardi. — Called at Chelsea to learn about 
Gabriel's health, as a letter raising some anxiety reached me 
thence yesterday. He speaks (by letter to Dunn) of the bad 
state of his eyes, and possibility that he may have to leave-off 
work, and turn china etc. into money ; but I doubt whether 
there is anything going on much different from what has been 
the state of things these many months. 

Monday, 28 March. — Called to see the pictures which Lucy 
Brown etc. are sending in to the R.A. Cathy's portrait of her 
Mother, and Miss Spartali's St Barbara, remarkably good. 

Tuesday, 5 April. — Gabriel, who has again of late been 
increasingly anxious about his eyes, consulted Dr Critchett 
to-day. Dr C[ritchett] (like all the others) insists that there is 
nothing substantial the matter with the eyes, but recommends 
rest, general reinvigoration, etc. He says the eyes are more 
than duly flat ; that this defect used to be corrected by an 
unconscious exertion of muscular power ; but that of late that 
power is not so readily brought into play, and hence the 
failure of sight. G[abriel] was with Swinburne (recently back 
from Holmwood) the better part of the day ; and speaks in 
the very highest terms of what S[winburne] has been writing 
lately — HertJia, The Litany of the Nations, and the Proem to 
Tristram and Yseult. S[winburne] has finished, or all but, 
his notice of G[abriel]'s poems for TJie Fortnightly Review ; 
and, spite of reiterated and strenuous protests from G[abriel], 
persists in retaining in it some passage exalting G[abriel] 
expressly above other contemporary poets. G[abriel]'s book 
is now finally made up, and preparing for publication ; Swin- 
burne's Songs before Sunrise are also expected to be out in 
May. Marston (through Knight) saw lately something of 
G[abriel]'s poems, and admired them much, and proposes to 
review them in The AtJienceuni. Purnell, it seems, does most 
of the poetic reviewing there, but cedes this to M[arston] : he 
believes that it was Buchanan who criticized my Shelley. . . . 
I began the notice of Coleridge, and began reading up for that 
of Cowper — the last that remains to be done. After this, the 
three outstanding volumes of Selections have to be compiled. 



WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1870 505 

Wednesday, 6 April. — Wrote to Moxon, naming the 
editions of Burns, Milton, Coleridge, and Keats, that should 
be sent to me for re-printing. In each of the last three it will 
be possible to introduce a new feature, rendering the forth- 
coming editions the completest in the market. 

Thursday, 7 April. — Handed over £20, which Gabriel 
requested for current expenses at Chelsea — he having returned 
yesterday to Scalands. One item is £\2. 15s. for fire-insur- 
ance : I find he is insured for ^5100. . . . 

Monday, 1 1 April. — . . . Payne tells me the Shelley has 
sold very fairly : the edition is 1000 copies. ... I see it is 
actually true (as I had been told) that Payne has had the 
infernal impudence to affix a pair of ass's ears to the portrait 
of Tennyson hanging in his room at Moxon's. . . . 

Monday, 18 April. — . . . Swinburne called, and read me 
The Litany of the Nations and Hertha, which are both very 
fine — though I rather question whether the best things of a 
like kind in Atalanta do not surpass even what is to be found 
in Hertha. He . . . has somewhat modified, at Gabriel's 
urgency, what he had said, in the review of G[abriel]'s poems, 
as to G[abriel]'s superiority to Tennyson etc. The poems for 
the volume of Songs before Sunrise are not yet entirely com- 
pleted. . . . 

Tuesday, 19 April. — Went to see at South Kensington the 
astonishing Japanese silk-painting of a tiger — done by a 
distinguished artist, Ganko, about 1700: it is a most admir- 
able piece of work. So also is the Refreshment-room painted 
by Morris : I think it must be the best piece of room-decora- 
tion, or something very like it, of this century, whether in 
England or elsewhere. It is darker than I like — i.e., the room 
admits less light : but I fancy this depends upon its position, 
not decoration. Saw the painted windows done by Scott in 
outline-grisaille : some of them are pleasing talented work, 
and sufficiently agreeable to the eye — as the subjects of 
Chinese Art-workmen, and of Orpheus : the last window, 
representing Raphael etc., appears to me not satisfactory, and 
the least approvable of all. — Read Swinburne's Eve of Revolu- 
tion and other poems in MS. ; most splendid work indeed. . . . 



506 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

Friday, 22 April. — Stillman called, and says that Gabriel's 
poems have already been reviewed in The Pall Alall Gazette 
and TJie Globe ; also that G[abriel] (who wrote us lately to 
say the Nortons had invited hirn to Florence, and to ask 
whether I would accompany him) is now almost minded to 
settle down for a while in Florence. I quite think it would 
be desirable for him to make the experiment. ... I had in 
the morning written to G[abriel], to say that I will see about 
arranging for accompanying him to Florence if he wishes 
(though for more reasons than one it is the last place I should 
myself want to be going to this year). . . . 



276. — Dante Rossetti — Proposed Raffle, Deverell. 

[I have found the following programme, roughly written 
out by my Brother, for a raffle on account of two pictures by 
his old friend Walter Howell Deverell : am not now able to 
say whether the programme was issued in these same terms, 
or whether the raffle was held. The date of writing should 
be 1870, as that was the sixteenth year following 1854, in 
which Deverell had died.] 

[1870:] 

It is projected to set on foot a raffle for the two following 
pictures by the late Walter H. Deverell, viz. — i. The Banish- 
ment of Hamlet — 2. Irisli Beggars by the Roadside. The 
death of this artist occurred sixteen years ago at the age of 
about twenty-five, and the promise he displayed remained 
unaccomplished. His works are the expression of original 
gifts, struggling with difficulties and not yet brought to 
maturity : but they have a true interest for those who can 
discover mental qualities in art ; contributing as they do to 
illustrate the growth of English poetic painting in the circle 
of men among whom he worked, many of whom, more fortu- 
nate in longer life, have now arrived at eminence. 

These two pictures display Deverell's qualities, especially 



ANNE GILCHRIST, 1870 507 

the Hamlet, a work which, when exhibited, met with appre- 
ciation for its colour and dramatic expression. The present 
raffle has for its important object the assistance of the late 
artist's sister, to whom the pictures belong. . . . 

The shares in the raffle to be a guinea each ; the holder 
of the first and second prizes will obtain respectively the 
pictures of Hai)ilet and the Irisli Beggars. The drawing will 
take place three months from the present date, when the 
subscribers will receive notice of the precise day and place. 



277. — Anne Gilchrist to William Rossettl 

20 The Terrace, Gunter Grove. 
2 January 1870. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — ... I happen to feel somewhat 
downcast and anxious. ... I have been reading The Satur- 
day Review, which always makes me supremely miserable, 
whatever it treats of. I take it a Saturday Reviewer must be 
the unhappiest man on the face of the earth, for he believes 
in nothing and admires nothing, not even himself. . . . — 
Always yours gratefully, 

Anne Gilchrist. 



278. — Anne Gilchrist to William Rossetti. 

[The passage here quoted, written by Whitman, must 
have occurred in a letter addressed to myself — the same 
letter which is spoken of in Mrs Gilchrist's of i January 1870, 
No 274.] 

20 The Terrace, Gunter Grove. 
3 January 1870. 

My dear Mr Rossetti, — In regard to his new edition Mr 
Whitman says : " My new editions, considerably expanded, 
with what suggestions etc. I have to offer (presented, I hope, 



508 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

in more definite graphic form), will probably get printed the 
coming Spring. I shall forward you early copies. I send 
my love to Moncure Conway, if )'0U see him ; I wish he would 
write to me soon and fully." I was going to copy the whole 
letter, and then could not make-up my mind to write out my 
own praises in such a cool way. — . . . Yours very truly, 

Anne Gilchrist. 



279. — Edward Trelawny to William Rossetti. 

7 Pelham Crescent, Brompton. 
8 January 1870. 

Dear Rossetti, — Thank you for the Book of Courtesies. A 
code of courtesy might be drawn from it, very useful in this 
present rude age. Has Moxon published his SJiclley ? — 
Yours truly, 

E. J. Trelawny. 



280. — Thomas Dixon to William Rossettl 

15 Sunderland Street, Sunderland. 
() January 1870. 

Dear Sir, — ... I enclose you a portrait of W. Whit- 
man that has been copied by Tom Westness from a large 
portrait sent me by Whitman on Christmas week ; and to 
get it done I ventured a journey to Morpeth in the snow- 
storm on the Christmas-day, for Tom was in a state of 
great anxiety to have it done, so soon as I sent him word 
I had got it. . . . Whitman sent with it Emerson's letter 
and some other trifles printed in a newspaper, also a very 
nice letter of sympathy for Mothers death, and of friendship 
to me, and a salutation for all his readers here. I intend 
to collect a few books amongst us here to send him in 
return for his kindness. Readers of his poems still keep 



BARONE KIRKUP, 1870 509 

on the increase in our neighbourhood, and many now love 
him, and value his poems much and deeply too. The Co- 
operative Store bought your edition of his writings for the 
Library, and I learn there has been other buyers in the 
town. I find Burroughs' book very useful as a help to a 
proper understanding of the man and his poems to new 
readers. . . . — Yours respectfully, 

Thomas Dixon. 



281. — Barone Kirkup to William Rossettl 

2 PONTE VECCHIO. 

15 January 1870. 

My dear Rossetti, — . . . Your kind dedication to me 
of your Courtesy-book came safe, and I am grateful. . . . 

I had written thus far, and behold ! your beautiful volume 
of the Text Society is brought me this moment. . . . 

Wonders will never cease ! The King has now given 
me the Order of the Corona d'ltalia. It is the second 
order of the kingdom, civil and military, as the Bath is of 
England. The first is that of the Annunziata, for the 
Royal Family, foreign sovereigns, etc. I was recommended 
by the Prime Minister, Menabrea, whom I never saw ; and 
to him by the M[inister] of Public Instruction, Bargoni, 
whom I likewise never saw. But the Secretary-General, 
Villari, is a very dear friend of mine of long standing, 
though he is a young man. He was one evening admiring 
the Arundel portrait of Dante at my house ; and I gave it 
him, to induce him to get the fresco (Giotto's) restored 
by removing the horrid daub that covers it. I asked him 
to persuade the Minister of P[ublic] I[nstruction], whose 
department it is, and I gave him another print for himself 
to give him, as an inducement ; and I suppose he gave it 
to him in my mime. But, instead of reviving Dante, he 
obtained the cross for me, and sent it me with the diploma 



510 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

and a very handsome letter, written entirely by his own 
hand ; and a beautiful hand it is, much better than the 
Secretary's. It is a perfect surprise, and Dante seems to 
care more for me than for the portrait. He was with me 
a few days before, and we asked him to inspire the 
M[inister] to get the portrait restored. Bargoni is now out 
— and there is no further prospect at present (and so is 
Menabrea), unless Dante can stimulate the new Minister. 

Holman-Hunt has not been here for a long time. I 
suppose he has some great qualities, perhaps expression, 
which is the greatest of all, . . . He is a good fellow any- 
how — and so is Woolner. . . . 

There are still some of the Polidoris in Florence. The 
Cancelliere is dead, but there is a Son of his whom I have 
seen in English society. — My dear friend, ever yours, 

Seymour Kirkup. 

... I will try and get you a photograph of the beauti- 
ful monument of Dante's General at Campaldino, which I 
drew for Lord V[ernon], and which is, I suppose, lost. The 
most important of all the illustrations. 



282. — Edward Trelawny to William Rossettl 

7 Pelham Crescent, Brompton. 
17 January 1870. 

Dear Rossetti, — You have verified your text that your 
editing our poet was a work of love. You are the first writer 
on Shelley that has done justice to him or his writings — all 
the previous writers are incompetent. Peacock had fancy and 
learning, Hogg the same ; Leigh Hunt did not understand 
Shelley's poetry ; Medwin, superficial ; Mrs Shelley, fear of 
running counter to the cant of society restrained her. You 
alone have the qualities essential to the task, and have done 
it admirably. 

The publishers have marred all. Under its present 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1870 511 

hideous form the book can't float — the pale ink, the small 
type, and crowded text. Those that have opened it shut 
it with disgust. When you come this way, let's have a talk. 
Thanking you for your notices, and hoping I deserve them, — 
I am always your obliged 

E. J. Trelawny. 

The Prometheus^ Shelley said, caused him the most labour ; 
and, if that was a failure, he could never hope to succeed in 
being a poet ; and, if not a poet, he was nothing. 



283. — Dante Rossetti to Professor Norton, Florence. 

16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. 
22 January 1870. 

My dear Norton, — I am truly ashamed of the above date, 
and of all my sins of omission ; including perhaps some 
omitted sins, — for these too strike one as mistakes occasion- 
ally as life wears on. However, at present such is not my 
remorse ; for most certainly it would have been no sin, but a 
duty, to have written ere now to one who must think he 
remembers me much better than I do him — and to whom at 
any rate I am grateful for past friendship, and even for future 
instalments of the same, so sure I am of them, whatever my 
poor deserts may be. 

I duly got long ago the drawing of Clerk Saunders, and 
was truly pleased to see its face again. It even surprised me 
by its great merit of feeling and execution, and now takes its 
place among its fellows on my drawing-room walls. I have 
had the silver flat gilded ; which makes a wonderful improve- 
ment in the tone, which the former leaden tint damaged 
terribly. Silver flats are one of the wilder experiments of 
our frame-making in those days. 

I hope when I see you again you will be pleased with the 
drawing of Janey Morris destined for you, which is now 
being finished. If you like however (you know), I will send 



512 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

it to you in Florence. But, before parting with it, I shall 
have to make a replica for my own keeping, as I like it on 
the whole the best of the drawings I have made of her, and 
never mean to let any more go out of my own possession. 
The chance of such a model is too precious for the ordinary 
market. You will be grieved to have heard (as you have 
doubtless done) how very ill she has been since you were in 
London ; nor can I give a good account of her now, though 
she has been somewhat better just latel}^ 

I have been thinking what there may be to tell you of my 
work, and am obliged to confess that it does not amount to 
much. I have been a good deal out of sorts, nor did I 
benefit much in the autumn by a trip to Scotland. However, 
poor health has not been the only cause of the little I have 
got done in painting, as I lost some time preparing a volume 
of poems for the press, which I hope to get out in the Spring. 
I have communicated with Mr Fields of Boston (whom you 
doubtless know) as to his undertaking an American reprint ; 
since, when he called on me with Longfellow last summer, he 
expressed a wish to reprint some early poetry of mine he had 
seen somewhere. I have not as yet received his reply. My 
proposed publisher, Ellis, had received a request for sheets of 
the poems from Messrs Roberts the American publishers, 
but I thought after what Fields said it was best to write to 
him. 

Of course you know how great a success Morris's new 
EartJily Paradise is ; and no doubt you agree with all the 
most reliable opinions, that there is some real advance as to 
strength and human character in this volume even over the 
former one. The Gudrun is surely on the whole one of the 
finest poems in the English language. I believe you have 
been hearing from Ned Jones, so need not convey news of 
him and his. 

What a delightful picture — indeed, a most precious one — 
your Giorgione turns out after passing through the hands of 
a skilful picture-cleaner ! Why in the world the change in it 
had ever been made it is difficult to conceive ; except indeed 
that it appears to have been part of a larger picture, the rest 



WILLIAM ALLINGHAM, 1870 513 

of which may presumably have been lost, and an attempt then 
made to give the fragment the look of a whole at the expense 
of its beauty and real character. It seems, as now cleaned, to 
be in a quite perfect state, and needed I believe no retouching 
whatever. The colour is so golden that it gives an idea of 
being actually painted on a gold ground, though this does not 
seem on examination to be the case. 

We have a very fine specimen of an American over here 
now in the person of Still man, whom you know. I have 
known him in a fragmentary way for many years, but am 
seeing more of him now, and like him extremely. 

I hope you are all enjoying yourselves in Florence, and 
above all that you have no ill-health to interfere with the 
fitness of things around you. Will you give my very best 
and truest remembrances to all yours, and accept them for 
yourself, believing me your sincere friend, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 



284. — William Allingham to William Rossetti. 

[The profile of Shelley in boyhood, done by the Due de 
Montpensier, is known to many persons interested in the 
great poet. I can only say that I never perceived it to bear 
much resemblance to his face, such as we very imperfectly 
know it from other records ; nor did I ever hear any details 
tending clearly to authenticate it. — In Allingham's P.S. the 
term "the engraving" means (as may readily be perceived) 
the engraved portrait of Shelley in my edition of his 
poems. — I will add here a few details about the Due de 
Montpensier. He was born in 1775, a younger son of the 
Due d'Orl^ans, Philippe Egalite, and was Brother to the Due 
de Chartres, afterwards King Louis Philippe. Getting into 
serious trouble and danger in the course of the French 
Revolution, he embarked for America in 1796, and came to 
England in 1800, residing at Twickenham. Here the Due de 
Montpensier died in 1807. The portrait said to be that of 

2 K 



514 



ROSSETTI PAPERS 



Shelley (born in 1792) represents a boy seemingly aged about 
eleven (or, as Allingham says, ten). This will bring us to 
1803, which is a date quite consistent with those which relate 
to the English sojourn of the Due de Montpensier, Shelley, 
it would appear, was a pupil at Sion House Academy, 
Isleworth, from the autumn of 1802 to the summer of 1804.] 

Lymington. 
1-}^ January 1870. 

Dear William, — Pray accept my best thanks, first for the 
curious Italian Courtesy-books, and secondly for the two 
valuable Shelley volumes. Both Life and Notes seem to me 
admirably done. 

Last month (December 5 and 6) I was at Boscombe, 
and saw for the first time the Shelley relics which are there. 
The letters, scribbling-books, pocket-books, rough and fair 
copies of poems, I was allowed to turn over for an hour or so, 
with promise of leave to examine them carefully at another 
time. They are in a cabinet which stands in a large recess, 
sometimes hid by a curtain, in Lady Shelley's boudoir. At 
the end of the recess is a full-size cast of Christchurch 
monument (drowned figure etc.) ; on one side of this a bust 
of Mrs Shelley — on the other a bust of Mrs Godwin (a 
beautiful woman) ; and on the wall an idealized copy of 
Miss Curran's picture of P. B. S. (the original is in Sir 
Percy's room), and two glazed frames with locks of hair : 



P. B. S. 
Do. 


T822 \ ^^"^^ brown 


Mary W. S. 


1 85 1 light and faded. 


P. Florence S. 


1 82 1 very light. 


Lord Byron 


1822 turning grey. 


C[ountess] Guiccioli 


blonde. 


L[eigh] Hunt 
Tom Moore 


\ nearly black. 


Ed. Trelawny 


1822 


Ed. Williams 


1821 



Item — portrait of William S[helley], child of about two ; 
blue eyes, sea-shell pink cheeks, yellow hair ; and pencil- 



MRS LYNN LINTON, 1870 515 

drawing (z>., copy or photograph of one) " drawn by the Due 
de Montpensier, and presented by him to the Ladies of 
Langollen," representing in profile the head of a very beautiful 
boy of about ten, with curls to his shoulders, P. B. S. to wit. 
The poet's travelling knife and fork in a case are here, one 
of his gloves (found in a book), the plate he used to eat his 
raisins off at Marlow in 1817 (a rather pretty plate, white 
with pattern of strawberries), the volume of ^Eschylus (not 
" Sophocles ") found in his pocket. The edition is a i2mo one 
in 2 volumes, and the companion-volume is also here. 

I read the pamphlet — 

" A Refutation of Deism, in a dialogue— 2YNET0ISIN "— 
London, printed by Schultze and Dean, 13 Poland Street, 
1814, lOi pages. 'Tis in ironical Voltairian manner: 
pretends to support Christianity — "no alternative between 
Atheism and Christianity " — while attacking both Christianity 
and Deism. The author's opinion is evidently given in these 
words : " It is easier to suppose that the Universe has existed 
from all eternity than to conceive an eternal being capable of 
creating it. . . . The system of the Universe is upheld solely 
by the physical powers," . . . — Yours always, 

W. Allingham. 

The engraving is a very unlucky version of Miss Curran's 
portrait, and likely to prepossess people against the book, 
I fear. I wish that drawing of the boy of ten were in stead 
of it. 



285. — Mrs Lynn Linton to William Rossettl 

28 GowER Street. 

27 January 1870. 

Dear Mr Rossetti, — Very many thanks for your Memoir. 
. . . All my life I have been ridiculed for my love of Shelley, 
and told how his poetry has been my ruin ; and now you 



516 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

come forward not only to defend but even to eulogize his 
lovers. . . . — Yours most faithfully, 

E. Lynn Linton. 



286. — Keningale Cook to William Rossettl 

69 Mansfield Road, Highgate Road. 
27 January 1870, 

Dear Mr Rossetti, — ... It may or may not interest you 
to learn — if you are not already aware of it — that your 
edition of Whitman has called forth long notices in two 
periodicals of rather distinctive class : — The Intellectual Reposi- 
tory (organ of Swedenborgian spiritualism) of a few months 
ago ; and The Spiritual Magazine {Chnstidin branch of modern, 
or, if I may so speak, more material spiritualism) of this 
month. This latter article, though narrow in one or two 
points, is fine in its way : the author " W. H." — William 
Howitt, I should imagine. The other paper wants a little 
straightening in its literary facts, which are set rather 
crookedly. . . . — Most truly yours, 

Keningale R. Cook. 



287. — William Rossetti to William Allingham. 

[In speaking of some portrait of Shelley " now lost," I 
meant (but the sentence is rather ambiguous) that the 
water-colour by Lieutenant Williams is now lost — not the 
oil-painting by Clint. The jocular allusion to The AthencEuni 
refers to the censorious review in that periodical of my 
edition of Shelley.] 

56 EusTON Square. 
2p January 1870. 

Dear Allingham, — . . . The engraving to my Shelley is 
indeed worse than indifferent : it is the same that had 



PiFlOFESSOR DOWDEN, 1870 517 

appeared in recent issues of Mrs Shelley's editions. It is 
not strictly from Miss Curran's portrait, but from the one 
used by Trelawny — z>., a water-colour by Lieut. Williams, 
from which (now lost) a portrait by Clint was painted. But 
no doubt Clint must have coached himself up from Miss 
Curran : but for this, one would have to say that the 
almost entire coincidence between the Curran and Williams 
portraits argues strongly in favour of the truthfulness of 
the now currently accepted Shelley face. — Yours as long as 
The AthencBuvi leaves me crawling, 

W. M. ROSSETTI. 



288. — Profr. Dowden to William Rossettl 

61 Wellington Road, Dublin. 
I February 1870. 

Dear Sir, — I write to know whether you are sufficiently 
disengaged to be able, or to care, to read an Essay of 
mine called The Poetry of Democracy : Walt Whitman. It 
came to be written at the request of the Editor of Macmil- 
lati that I should contribute something to his magazine ; 
but, on finding my paper was concerned with Whitman, he 
could have nothing to do with it. The MS. went the 
round of several Reviews ; or rather I consulted the Editor 
beforehand as to whether an article on such a subject would 
be acceptable ; but the Fortnightly had had its article on 
Whitman already, and from other quarters I got such 
answers as " God save us from Whitmanism " — " Whitman's 
monstrous system," etc. etc. At last, in the least likely 
quarter, it was accepted — for The Contemporary Review. . . . 
But, after being put into print, Dean Alford and Mr Strahan 
found its tone " too alarming " to permit of its being pub- 
lished. 

I have the proof-sheet by me, and I should like you (if 
it does not trouble you) to read my essay ; partly because 
I can acknowledge thereby, beside other debts, especially 



518 llOSSETTI PAPERS 

the debt you have laid me under in making me acquainted 
with Whitman's writings ; partly because, as I suppose no 
English review will accept my article (which I believe you 
will find very innocent and ?/;?-" alarming "), I should be 
glad to learn from you if you think there is a chance of 
its being accepted by any American Review of merit, and 
if so — which. 

In any case I wish Whitman himself to see it, and shall 
thank you if you can let me know his address. . . . 

I am connected with the University of Dublin as Pro- 
fessor of English Literature. . . . — Very faithfully yours, 

Edward Dowden. 



289. — Dante Rossetti to William Rossettl 

[I think it as well to give this extract ; as it has often 
been said, spitefully or ignorantly or with much exaggera- 
tion, that Dante Rossetti prompted some of his friends to 
write reviews of his Poems. The extract strongly suggests 
that both Mr William Morris (Top) and Mr Swinburne 
acted spontaneously. Mr Morris's review appeared in The 
Academy. The sequel to the present letter comes in letter 
294, II February 1870.] 

[16 Cheyne Walk. 
3 February 1870.] 

Dear William, — I am always forgetting to ask you as 
follows. Top wants to do a notice of my book. He proposed 
Fortnightly ; but there I believe Swinburne proposes to do so, 
and had long ago started the idea. Do you think The 
Academy would be available ? And, if so, could you propose 
the thing to the Editor? Top's name would be useful 
perhaps to him, as well as to my book. . . . — Your 

D. G. R. 



F. T. PALGRAVE, 1870 519 



290. — Profr. Dowden to William Rossetti. 

61 Wellington Road, Dublin. 
5 February 1870. 

Dear Sir, — I post to you to-day my article. ... I ought 
to have made it clearer that I view Whitman's work by no 
means as supply to answer such demand as the American 
people makes, or is likely for some time to make ; but as 
the utterances of a man of genius standing in the presence of 
a great democracy, and delivering himself with no concern 
for his hearers' tastes or wishes. Whitman's want of popularity 
therefore in his own country affords no argument against the 
statement that he is the poet of democracy. The Hebrew 
prophets, in the same way, were unpopular, yet were no less 
on that account the truest interpreters of the Hebrew spirit. 
. . . — Very truly yours, 

Edward Dowden. 



291.— F. T. Palgrave to William Rossetti. 

5 York Gate, Regent's Park. 
7 February 1870. 

Dear Rossetti, — ... I am in the thick of your Shelleyan 
labours, and admire the reverential reserve with which you 
have altered the text. I have long since surrendered all my 
attempts at correction : except the dome for doom in the West 
Wind, in which I dare say I have been anticipated by others. 
. . , — Ever truly yours, 

F. T. Palgrave. 



520 nOSSETTI PAPERS 



292. — Profr. Dowden to William Rossetti. 

61 Wellington Road, Dublin. 
10 February 1870. 

My dear Sir, — . . . What you say of Whitman's being a 
" daemonic man " (Goethe's phrase — is it not ?) and therefore 
only to be expected to utter his own vision of truth, not that 
of the side remote from him, is most true. I do not think of 
blaming, any more than I could think of blaming J. H. New- 
man, say, for being at the extreme other pole of truth. But 
in such a criticism as mine it seemed in keeping with the rest 
to note the limitations or even the error of his thinking, as 
well as the chief objects within its range. That error, as it 
presents itself to me, is an exclusion of self-consciousness 
from Nature, and all that proceeds from self-consciousness ; 
whereas Nature really includes self-consciousness. Whitman, 
in his feeling that men would become more a part of Nature, 
and so live a freer larger life, by utterly losing sight of them- 
selves, is really tending towards asceticism of a peculiar kind, 
— self-mutilation, putting-out of the inward eye of self- 
observation for the sake of getting into his Kingdom of 
Heaven, His doctrine seems to me, by an immeasurable 
amount, more fruitful than its opposite — that which devotes 
itself to inculcating self-superintendence without caring to 
develop that which is to be superintended. But the zchole 
truth on this matter is what I would grow passionate for, 
which I find nowhere better put than in the words of Schelling, 
whose philosophy too was a Natiir-pJiilosopJiic : — " It has long 
been perceived that in art [and life and all things] everything 
is not performed with a full consciousness ; that with the 
conscious activity an unconscious energy must unite itself; 
that the perfect union and reciprocal interpenetration of the 
two is that which accomplishes the highest in art " [and in 
life]. . . . — Very truly yours, 

Edward Dowden. 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1870 521 



293. — John Tupper to Dante Rossetti. 

[The book sent along with this note is evidently the one 
entitled Hiatus, or the Void in Modern Education. As Mr 
Tupper was an excellent Art-teacher, and the main thesis of 
his book is to some extent well summarized in this note — 
the book itself being far less widely known than it deserves 
to be — I think it desirable to insert the letter.] 

Rugby. 
II February 1870. 

My dear Rossetti, — I have ordered a copy of my Book to 
be sent you. You will (if you read) differ gravely on some 
points, but I hope I shall have your sanction on some. I am 
not, you mind, writing about art as poetry; though I contend 
that, if art is only taught grammatically, and learned so, there 
will be some emotional, some poetic outcome. I only say 
that we cannot teach poetry nor the poetic constituent of 
Art ; and that is just what we are for ever pretending to do, 
in schools, to the exclusion of the possible teaching. 

I am entrancedly gloating over these wonderful things in 
Turner's Liber Studiorum ; but I do not show them to my 
boys till they are well advanced, for we can't get so far. 
Boys could not see them as anything but a sanction for 
scribble. If we root-out the sham, and get-in a little truth 
in the way of drawing, we do much — eh ? — Yours always, 

J. L. Tupper. 



294. — Dante Rossetti to William Rossettl 

[16 Cheyne Walk. 
II February 1870.] 

Dear W., — Top thinks the best plan would be as you 
suggest — i.e., for you to tell the Editor of Academy that he is 



522 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

willing to write on his own subjects, and notify any book he 
wishes for review. I suppose that plan is likely to suit 
Editor. — Your 

D. G. R. 



295. — John Pickford to William Rossettl 

[The statement that Shelley entered Eton School " at the 
age of thirteen" is not quite accurate. He was there before 
he was fully twelve.] 

Bolton Percy, near Tadcaster. 
15 February [1870]. 

My dear Sir, — . . . On the enclosed paper I have jotted 
down a few bits concerning Shelley which have fallen under 
my notice in my reading, though perhaps they may not be 
new to you, and may have been anticipated in your Memoir. 
— Believe me yours faithfully, 

John Pickford. 

It is owing to your remarks on Shelley in the last No. of 
Notes and Queries that I have sent the paper to you. 

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792, and at the age 
of thirteen, after being at School at Sion House, Brentford, 
was sent to Eton. Joseph Goodall, D.D., was then Head 
Master (1801 to 1809, when he was elected Provost of the 
College). Dr Keate was most probably at the time of 
Shelley's entrance Master of the Lower School, in which he 
was placed. A reference to Etoniana or the Registruni 
Regale could at once show whether I am correct in my 
assertion concerning Dr Keate having once been Lower 
Master. The power of flogging would belong to him, as well 
as to the Head Master. 

In 1809 Keate became Head Master, and held that post 
for a great number of years. 

In 1 811 Shelley was expelled from University College, 



MRS LEWES, 1870 523 

Oxford, at the age of eighteen. — Query, in what year did he 
enter Oxford ? — University College at that time had chiefly 
as its undergraduate members young men of family and 
fortune from Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire, — in 
fact, was peopled by a set of hard-living north-countrymen ; 
and why selected as a college for Shelley it is difficult to say. 
The Master was James Griffith, D.D. (1808 to 1821). To Mr 
Faber belongs the merit in the first instance of raising 
University to its present high rank in Oxford, and also to 
Arthur Stanley, the Dean of Westminster, both of whom 
were Tutors. 

In The Neiv Monthly Magazine for 1833 may be found an 
account of Shelley's expulsion, written by a contemporary, 
which is well worth reading. . . , 

Mention is made, in the N[ew] M\onthly\ AI[agazine'\ 
article above alluded to, of Shelley's quickness in making Latin 
verses ; and of his once having shown up a Latin prose 
theme to Keate in which he wrote some verses, and which 
Keate as he read the theme scanned. This was most likely 
when Keate was Lower Master ; unless, as is scarcely prob- 
able, Shelley, during the latter part of his stay at Eton, was 
in the Sixth Form. 



296.— Mrs Lewes to Dante Rossetti. 

[My Brother's acquaintance with the self-styled " George 
Eliot " was not at any time very close : it was (as we see) at 
this date sufficient to warrant him in sending her, or to war- 
rant her in asking for and accepting, some photographs from 
his works of art. The "head marked June 1861 " must 
have been a pencil-head of his Wife — one of very few which 
he drew from her, as actual portrait-studies, after the date of 
their marriage. The chief subject in the letter here extracted 
from is the photograph from the pen-and-ink drawing of 
Hamlet and Ophelia. That passage was reproduced in Miss 
Mathilde Blind's volume George Eliot : so I omit it here.] 



524 HOSSETTl PAPfiUS 

21 North Bank. 

17 February 1870. 

Dear Mr Rossetti, — I have had time now to dwell on the 
photographs. I am especially grateful to you for giving me 
the head marked June 1861 : it is exquisite. But I am glad 
to possess every one of them. The subject of The Magdalene 
rises in interest for me the more I look at it. I hope you will 
keep, in the picture, an equally passionate type for her. 
Perhaps you will indulge me with a little talk about the 
modifications you intend to introduce. . . . 

1 thank you sincerely, and I feel it a privilege to have 
learned something of your mind's work. — Yours always truly, 

M. E. Lewes. 



297. — Dante Rossetti to William Rossettl 

[The chief interest of this note is the evidence it affords 
that my Brother, even before his volume Poems was actually 
published, had confidently forecast that it would be attacked 
by Mr Robert Buchanan. I omit, for a sufficient reason, the 
close of his sentence about Mr Buchanan : the reader will 
understand that what he means is that this author, when 
about to write a hostile review, would find himself more or 
less hampered through laudatory reviews already written and 
published by authors as distinguished as himself — or shall I 
say ino7'e distinguished ?] 

[16 Cheyne Walk. 
23 February 1870.] 

Dear W., — I have sent my proofs for correction and reset- 
ting (as I mean now to have only 24 lines in a page, instead of 
29), and have told them to send a set (when done) to you at 
once. I suppose this will not be done for some days, but 
write now lest I forget ; as I want to ask whether you could 
greatly oblige me by reading them carefully through again 
with a view to punctuation when you receive them, as I am 



MORRIS & COMPANY, 1870 525 

sure stops etc. will be sure to drop out in the resetting, and 
you must have a good habit of spotting these things, besides 
better eyes than I have. 

Swinburne's article will be in the May Fortnightly, one 
by Skelton in May Fraser, and Top (I trust) in May Academy. 
So Buchanan may, let us hope, be caught just in the 

act. . . . — Your 

D. G. R. 



298.— John Ruskin to William Rossetti. 

[I have forgotten what was " that help " which I had just 
been affording to Mr Ruskin : it must apparently have been 
in the nature of translating some passage from the writings of 
Leonardo da Vinci on pictorial art] 

Oxford. 
10 March 1870. 

Dear Rossetti,— I am so very much obliged to you for 
that help. There is a great deal in Leonardo which I used to 
think commonplace, but now find— examining the expres- 
sions closely— of highest value. That Imperatore bit is very 
puzzling however at best. 

Thank you for the book on mediaeval etiquette — it is 
greatly amusing.— Ever believe me, dear Rossetti, yours 

affectionately, 

J. Ruskin. 



299._M0RRis & Company— A Bill. 

[As everything connected with the firm of Morris & 
Company has become of interest to many, I give here a copy 
of a bill of theirs. I don't know who did the " device" : it 
is not exactly a masterpiece. The bill relates to the stained- 



526 ROSSETTI PAPERS 

glass window commissioned by Charlotte Polidori in memory 
of her deceased sister Margaret, and set up in Christ Church, 
Albany Street : it was designed by Dante Rossetti, and 
executed by the Morris Firm. The subject is here called 
" Sermon on the Mount " : but this is not correct, as the 
designer intended the Sermon on the Plain — as set forth in 
Ltike, chap. 6.] 

26 Queen Square, Bloomsbury, W.C. 
March 19th 1870. 

To Miss Polidori. 



Device 



Dr. to MORRIS & COMPANY, 



Fitie Art Workmen, in Painting, Carving, Stained Glass, 
Furniture, and the Metals. 

The terms are strictly for cash : five per cent, charged after three 
months. 

1870. 
Janry. 15. To Brass Plate for Window-sill 

with inscription. . . . ;i^i 19 8 
Mar. 18. To Stained Glass, Sermon on the 

Mount 35 o o 

„ Fixing o 16 4 



£Z7 16 o 
March 21. Received with thanks, Morris & Company. 

300. — Dante Rossetti to William Rossettl 

[I don't now remember — and I suppose that I never 
knew — anything about this matter of The North British 
Review. It appears that Mr W. B. Scott co-operated (at 
least in intention) in the plan, which he afterwards vigorously 
denounced, of the reviewing, by personal friends and acquaint- 
ances, of the Poems of Dante Rossetti. Also I do not 
recollect what poem or passage written by my Brother 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1870 527 

appeared to me to resemble the first sonnet of Petrarch — one 
of the most perfect pieces of verse-writing in any language.] 

[SCALANDS. 
25 March 1870.] 

Dear W., — Do you know if Simcox is on the North 
British ? It seems some one secured my book there before 
Scott asked for it, but I don't know who it was. Or is there 
any one else likely ? Do you know the names ? 

I've been rather worried by your discovery about the 
resemblance to Petrarch's first sonnet, which I verily believe 
I never read. Would you mind copying it for me ? 

I have written just a sheet of new matter which is in 
print now, and shall do no more but a sonnet or two 
perhaps, I'm not in trim, and time wears too short. — Your 

Gabriel. 

I finished The Stream's Secret (begun at Penkill) which 
makes 12 pages. The rest are sonnets. 



301. — Dante Rossetti to Madox Brown. 

SCALANDS. 

\ApHl 1870.] 
Dear Brown, — I write to Dunn with this about the 
studies. I should be much obliged to you to look in again. 
I do not think you or any one understands the extent to 
which my eyesight now interferes with work. Every moment 
is an effort. The chalks are a little less painful, so I am 
apt to do them. I have fortunately several commissions 
for chalk-portraits which I may get done on reaching 
London unless my eyes become worse. 

No matter about the trifle of tin. There will be moments 
more convenient for you, and more desperate for me, yet. 
. . . — Your 

D. G. R. 



528 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



302. — Dante Rossetti to Profr. Norton, Florence. 

SCALANDS, ROBERTSBRIDGE, SUSSEX. 
II April 1870. 

My dear Norton, — What very, very kind letters from 
yourself and Mrs Norton ! May I mass the answers I owe 
into one? It seems natural, when the unity of kindness is 
so complete in both. 

I have been here for a month or rather more now, 
having left London in very poor health, and not having 
much to boast of at this writing. There is everything to 
tempt me in your invitation, I need hardly say ; but the 
weakness I have long been experiencing in my eyes forbids 
sight-seeing, and to enter Florence under such a prohibi- 
tion for the first time would be, I fear, too tantalizing. 
Better dulness and commonplace at home than such a 
change so circumscribed. Besides, if work may be, work I 
must for many reasons, and the day has arrived to try 
again. So I fear there is little likelihood (though not per- 
haps quite none) of my seeing you in Florence. Mean- 
while, I may say truly that no distant place or persons 
seem to me so pleasantly inviting, but for dismal drawbacks. 

I hope you will soon get my volume of poems. It shall 
reach you as soon as it is out, which will I believe be for 
certain before the end of this month. Some friendly hands 
are already at work on reviews of it: Morris for The 
Academy — Swinburne for the Fortnightly — Stillman for an 
American paper — and others. 

Stillman is my companion in these solitudes, and a very 
good, helpful, friendly companion he is, as you will judge 
from your knowledge of him. The house (which has a 
good studio in it) has been lent us by an old friend, Mrs 
Bodichon, an excellent landscape-painter herself, as you 
perhaps know. I think you have heard from Stillman that 
he has . . . got himself engaged. . . . He has gone up to 
town to-day, . . . and I am left to lonely letter-writing. 



DANTE ROSSETTI, 1870 52^ 

She is a noble girl — in beauty, in sweetness, and in artistic 
gifts ; and the sky should seem very warm and calm above, 
and the road in front bright and clear, and all ill things 
left behind for ever, to him who starts anew on his life- 
journey, foot to foot and hand in hand with her. ... I 
warmly hope that happiness is in store for them both. She 
is a pearl among women, and there are points in Stillman's 
character of the manliest and truest I know. His prospects 
are at present however very uncertain. . . . 

I hope that when you get my book you will agree with me 
as to the justness of my including all it contains. I say this 
because there are a few things — and notably a poem called 
Jenny — which will raise objections in some quarters. I only 
know that they have been written neither recklessly nor 
aggressively (moods which I think are sure to result in the 
ruin of Art), but from a true impulse to deal with subjects 
which seem to me capable of being brought rightly within 
Art's province. Of my own position I feel sure, and so wait 
the final result without apprehension. 

Our friends are all well, with the exception, I most deeply 
grieve to say, of Mrs Morris, who is still in a very delicate 
state. She and Morris have been in this neighbourhood 
lately, and are coming again ; and I trust the change may 
prove eventually of some decided benefit to her, as signs of 
this have already become apparent. 

Good-bye, my dear Norton. I am going for my walk now 
in a pleasing but not very sympathetic entourage of leafless 
woods and English associations which I have grown old in, 
but am never perhaps quite at home with. I envy you your 
Italian ones, and shall be very glad to hear more of the study 
you propose to undertake of Michelangelo's unpublished 
letters. I hope the fit of queer health which baulked you at 
the outset is over now, and that you and yours are all well. 
To all of you my best love, and the assurance that I am ever 
yours and theirs, 

D. G. ROSSETTI. 



2 L 



530 ROSSETTI PAPERS 



303.— Barone Kirkup to William Rossettl 

[Pietrocola here mentioned was (as in previous instances) 
my Cousin Teodorico Pietrocola-Rossetti. As to " Shelley's 
bed," or sofa, which is now my property, I may give its 
history in brief, supplementing the few remarks made in my 
Diary for 13 March 1870. Shelley bought this sofa in Pisa, 
when he was furnishing there. I believe the statement made 
by Trelawny, that it was bought in Leghorn and for Leigh 
Hunt, was not strictly accurate. I always used to hear its 
material called " Italian walnut-wood " ; but was of late 
credibly informed that it is beech-wood. It is very roomy 
and fully sufficient to serve as a bed, and Trelawny told 
me that Shelley often used it thus. If Shelley left it in Pisa 
in 1822, instead of sending it off to Casa Magni near Lerici (a 
point as to which I am not certain), he must apparently have 
slept upon it the last night of his life : for that night was spent 
in Pisa, and on the following morning he went to Leghorn, and 
embarked on the fatal boat. After the poet's death the sofa 
remained of course the property of Mrs Shelley. She, on 
leaving Italy, gave it to Leigh Hunt, who was still sojourning 
there. He, on leaving, gave it to Charles Armitage Brown, 
the friend of Keats. From him (without, I think, any inter- 
mediate owner) it came to Kirkup. He, as he was nearing 
his death, at an age exceeding ninety, was solicited by 
Trelawny to send the sofa over to ///;;/, who would value it, 
instead of leaving it to take, on Kirkup's decease, its chance 
as so much ramshackle furniture. The Barone assented, and 
dispatched the precious relic to Trelawny. He, with his 
wonted and abnormal generosity, abstained from housing it 
in his own residence, and forthwith consigned it to me ; he 
remaining the legal but only the nominal owner up to his 
death in 1881, when I, by his gift, entered upon full rights of 
possession. — Towards the close of his letter, Kirkup speaks of 
the pomegranates represented in Giotto's portrait of Dante, 
and he seems to be about to offer an explanation of them : 



BARONP: KIRKtJP, 1870 531 

but the explanation does not come — owing, I take it, to lapse 
of memory on his part.] 

2 PoNTE Vecchio. 
24 April 1870. 

My dear Rossetti, — ... I have just been to Pietrocola. 
He is looking thinner, but is perfectly recovered except a little 
weakness in his legs, which will soon get their strength again. 
I think his house is too close and confined. . . . Dark, low 
rooms on a ground-floor. The proverb says, 

Erba cruda, 

Donna gnuda, 

O stanza terrena, 

A corta vita mena. . . . 

You mention Shelley's bed. It was that sofa on which 
you sat with me in this room. I have slept for months on it 
in hopes of seeing Shelley's ghost. I have had so many here 
in my presence, and have seen them four times only in their 
person, but innumerable exploits performed by them abso- 
lutely impossible by human agency. . . . 

Did I tell you I have found out the meaning of the three 
pomegranates in the hand of Giotto's portrait ? Your Father 
with his intuitive sagacity, guessed that they related to the 
three poems {canticJie)^ and he was right ; but why that fruit in 
particular? . . . 

Remember me to Trelawny, my best and oldest friend. 
He is a younger man than me ; but we must of course soon 
meet, for I have great faith in another world — not that of the 
impostor Alain Kardec. — Believe me, with true affection, 
yours ever, 

Seymour Kirkup. 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Aali Pacha, 412 

Academy, The (journal), 412, 518, 521, 
525, 528 

Acropolis, Athens, 419 

Adelphi Terrace, London, 407 

Adourne, Count, 38 

Adriatic Sea, the, 204 

/Eschylus, 515 

Agen, 262 

Agnew, Messrs, 268, 403, 479, 488, 496 

Agnew, Miss (see Severn, Mrs Arthur) 

Ailsa Crag, 202 

Airolo, no 

Alban Hills, the, 212 

Albany Street, 166, London, 197, 224 

Albergo dell' Angelo, Bellinzona, no 

Albergo d'ltalia, Arona, 316 

Albergo d'ltalia, Brescia, 118 

Albergo d'ltalia, Como, in 

Albenis, De, 187, 188 

Alessandria, 217 

Alfieri, Count, 239, 468 

Alford, Dean, 517 

Algeria, 500 

Alighieri, Jacopo, 249 

Alighieri, Pietro, 216 

Allan, Mr, 243 

Allingham, Wm., x., xi., 240, 274, 337, 
338 
Fifty Modern Poems by, 90 
Nightingale Valley, collected by, 402 

Alps, the, 108, 114 

Ambler, 301 

Ambrosian Library, Milan, iij 

America, 177, 196, 235, 240, 300, 303, 
320, 380, 4n, 412, 440, 513 

Ancona. 387 

Ancona, Alessandro d', 343 

Andermatt, 109, no 

Andersonville, 235 

Anfiteatro Virgiliano, Mantua, 312 

Ant^elico, Fra, 118, 134 
Annunciation by, 118 
533 



Anne (servant), 395 
Annunziata, 451, 452 
Ansanti, 390 
Anthony, W. Mark, 29, 66 

Harvest-Field at Sunset, by, 66 
Anthropological Society, The, 303 
Antonelli, Cardinal, II 
Antonello da Messina, 105 

Portrait by, 105 
Antwerp, 33, 35, 36, 37 
Antwerp Cathedral, 34 
Antwerp Museum, 33, 35 
Aquila, 425 

Aquila d'Oro Hotel, Mantua, 31 1 
Arabian Nights, The, 369 
Arcivescovado, Milan, 115 
Arena, the, Verona, 121, 313 
Arenberg, Due d', 32 
Armellini, 225 
Arnold, Matthew, 233 
Arona, 316, 317 
Aroux, E., 182, 209, 288, 427 

Dante Her^tique etc. by, 184 

Dante translated by, 184 

Francesca da Rimini etc, by, 182, 
184 
Arrichetti (Venice), 56 
Art-Journal, The, 436 
Arundel Club, the, London, 175 
Arundel Society, the, 344, 408 
Ashburnham, Lord, 271 
Aspromonte, 118, 192 
Assisi, 434 
Athenisum, The, 193, 258, 356, 382, 

398, 483, 484, 504, 516 
Athens, 378,412 
Atlantic Monthly, The, 162, 235 
Atrium Vestas, Rome, 261 
Attenborough, 300 
Australia, 166, 194, 325 
Austria, 186, 204, 207, 213 
Avignon, 259 
Ayr, 453 
Ayrshire, 478 



534 



INDEX OF NAMES 



B 



Baden, Grand Duchy of, i:6 

Bader, Dr. 322, 370 

Baines, 325, 326 

Bale, 59, 106, 107, 108, 30S 

Bale Cathedral, 107, loS 

Bale Museum, loS 

Balliol College, Oxford, 302, 37S 

Bandello, 367 

Novelle by, 367 
Bandiera, Fratelli, 207, 20S, 314 
Barbera, 490 
Barcelona, 319, 330 
Barge Yard, London, 435 
Bargoni, 509, 510 
Barlow, Dr, ^6, 87 
Barnet Market- Place (picture), 46, 

47 
Bartholoccius, 483 
Bassi, Ugo, 225 
Batines, De, 366 
Bayonne, 302 

Bear-Garden, Southwark, 261 
Beckford, Wm., 369 

Vathek by, 369 
Bedini, 225 

Belgium, viii., 31, 35, 38 
Bella Giulietta, La, di ^Lantova (play), 

3" 
Bellini, Giovanni, 114, 138 

Pieta by, 114 

Madonna and Child (S. Giovanni e 
Paolo) by, 3 1 5 
Bellinzona, no, in 
Belloc. ^Lldanle, S7. 88, 383 
Belvedere, Kent, 165 
Bendy she, 3 So 
Benedict, Pope, 259 
Bergimo, viii., 58, 118, 120, 121 
Berijamo BapListery, 122 
Berlin, 37 
Bertini, III 
Bewick, T homas, 179, 246 

Life of, 179 
Bexley, 167 
Bianchi, Bruno, 209 
Bianchi (\'eni e), 56 
Bible, The, iS, 36, 77 
Biche au Bois, La (play), 1 84 
Billot, Dr, 177 

Recherches Ps3-chologiques by, 177 
Bingley, 60 

Birmingham Art Gallery, 1 33 
Bishopgate, Berks, 3S0 
Black Forest, the, 126 
Blackmore, Mrs, 261 
Blake, Mrs, 19, 41 



Blake, Wm., viii.. 6, 15, 16, 17, 19 to 22, 
25, 40, 41, 42, 171, 172, 177, 178, 
iSo, 181, 182, 221, 229 
Blake, Wni. Worh h — 

Africa, 6 

Ahania, 6 

Ancient Britons, 170, 172, 178 

Ancient of Days, 19, 41 

Asia, 6 

Blair's Grave, Designs, 24, 171 

Canterbury Pilgrimage, 23 

Dante Designs, 17, 18 

Daughters of Albion, 19 

Descriptive Catalogue, 24 

Elijah's Chariot, 17 

Eve and Serpent, 17 

French Revolution, 27, 41, 42 

Jerusalem, 42, 43, 234 

Last Judgment, 24 

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 6 

Mental Traveller, The, 19 

Nebuchadnezzar, 17 

Newton, 17 

Philips's Pastoral Designs, 20 

Pity like a Newborn Babe, 17 

Prophetic Books, 27, 169 

Satan in Hell, 23, 24 

Saviour, The, 17 

Song of Los, 6 

Spenser Characters, 23, 24 

Tiriel, 27, 42 

Urizen, 24 

Visionary Heads, 20 
Blamire, 40 
Blind, Karl, 230 
Blind. Mathilde, 261,402,447 

George Eliot, by, 523 
Blumenthal, 313, 316 
Boccaccio, 32 t 

Filostrato by, 321, 326, 332 

Teseide b}', 339, 380 
Bodichon, Dr, 500 
Bodichon, Mrs, Sr, 383, 499, ^oo, 501, 

528 
Rodley, G. F.. 221 
Bognor, 320 
Bologna, 120 

Bolsover Street, London, 396 
Bonaparte, Cardinal, 3.S8 
Bonaparte, K'ng Joseph, 262 
Bonaparte, King Louis, 219 
Bonaparte, Xiccolo. 218 

La Vedova bj', 218 
Bond, 229 
Bonham, 190 
Bonifazio \'eneziano, 117 
Bonnat, 185 

St Vincent de Paul by, 185 



INDEX OF NAMES 



535 



Bonvicino da Riva, Fra, 307 

Cortesie della Tavola by, 307 
Borgo Ticino Church, Pa via, 117 
Borgognone, 116 

St Syrus P-nthroned by, 116 
Boscombe, 375, 474, 514 
Botticelli, Sandro, 8, 10, 228 

Female Portrait by, 228 
Boulevard des Capucines, Paris, 130 
Boulevard Hausmann, Paris, 105 
BouIogne-sur-Mer, 318, 322, 360 
Bowman, Sir Wm., 241, 329, 369, 418 
Boyce, G, P., 54, 55, 66, 174, 231, 232, 

330 
Boyd, Alice, 157, 158, 202, 237, 324, 

370,412,415, 452.457 
Boyd, Spencer, 157, 158 
Boyd, Zachary, 237 

Dramas by, 237 
Boydell's Shakespear Gallery, 363 
Boyle, Hon. Mrs, 199 
Bracknell, 447 
Braila, Sir Peter, 226 
Brera Gallery, Milan, 1 14, 246 
Brescia, 117, 119 
Brescia Campo Santo, 120 
Brescia Cathedral, II8, 1 19 
Bressant, 238 
Brett, John, 46, 142, 318, 380, 396 

Chepstow Castle by, 139 
Bright, John, 208, 394 
Brighton, 62, 156, 415 
Briguiboul, 32 

Castor and Pollux by, 184 

Robespierre Wounded by, 32 
Brisbane, 412 

Early Years of Alex. Smith by, 412 
Bristol Gardens, 7, London, 154 
British Museum, 170, 176, 178, 193, 
219, 221, 229, 318, 319, 386, 392, 
400, 421, 432 
Broadway, The (magazine), 242, 243, 

245, 284, 296, 379 
Brockbank, 464 
Broletto, Brescia, 118 
Broletto, Como, 112 
Bronte, Emily, 369 

Wuihering Heights by, 369 
Brookbank, Shottermill, 37, 417 
Brookes, Warwick, 298, 300, 301, 345 
Brougham, Miss, 462 
Brown, Charles Armitage, 182, 183, 

366. 530 
Brown, Dr Samuel, 210, 21 1 
Brown, Emma, 49, 139, 173, 203, 268, 

328, 463, 465 
Brown. Ford Madox, viii.. ix., 22, 46, 65, 
70, 78,89, 139, 173, 197, 198, 199, 



203, 226, 233, 234, 239, 246, 253, 
256, 257, 272, 296, 304, 320, 326, 
327. 328, 330, 334, 335, 339, 379, 
383 to 386, 394, 396, 397, 402, 403, 
406, 414, 415, 428,440, 450, 452, 

457, 464, 478, 479, 496, 499 
Brown, Ford Madox. Works hy — 
At the Opera, 139, 141 
Byron Designs, 386 
Catalogue of his Exhibited Works, 

87 
Chaucer at Court of Edward IH., 

132, 239 
Cordelia's Portion, 197, 224, 371,415 
Don Juan and Haidee, 415 
Elijah and the Widow, 46, 139, 256, 

379 
Entombment, The, 415, 464 
Head of Miss Spartali, 402 
Head of Mrs Brown, 402 
Infant's Repast, The, 131, 132 
Jacob and Joseph's Coai, 266, 371, 

464 
Last (The) of England, 199, 371 
Old Toothless, 46 
Romeo and Juliet, 226, 379 
Sardanapalus, 402 
Work (picture), 97, 138, 139, 371 
Brown, Lucy {see Rossetti, Lucy) 
Brown, Oliver Madox, ix., x., 28, 29, 
199, 234, 256, 327, 329, 330, 362, 
396, 414, 464, 465, 493 
Exercise by, 464 
Infant Jason and the Centaur by, 

X., 327, 361, 362, 379 
Obstinacy by, 397 

Queen Margaret and the Robber by, 
234, 256, 257 
Browning, Elizabeth B., 81 

My Heart and I, by, 81 
Browning, Miss, 299, 306 
Browning, Robert, 29, 44, 179, 202, 
233, 243, 298, 299, 302, 306, 307, 
319, 339, 368, 378, 392, 400, 401. 
427, 429, 447, 449 
Bishop's Tomb at St Praxed's by, 

388 
Men and Women by, 349 
Paracelsus by, 393 
Pauline by, 299 
Ring (The) and the Book by, x., 299, 

302, 380, 401 
Sordello by, 313 
Browning, Robert Barrett, 302, 378 
Bruges, 38 
Bruges Academy, 37 
Bruges Townhall, 38 
Brussels, 31, 32, 33, 36 



53G 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Brussels Cathedral, 33 

Brussels Museum of Paintings, 32, 33 

Brussoni, Count, 120 

Bryant, 413 

Bryant, W. Cullen, 224 

Buchanan, Robert, xi., 365, 504, 524, 525 

Buffalmacco, II 

Bulgaria, 377 

Bun3'an, 71 

Burci, Dr, 389, 390, 436 

Burdon, Miss, 404, 449 

Burges, Wm., 494 

Burlington Club, London, ix., 222, 226, 

230, 234, 235, 245, 338 
Burmister, Rev. Mr, 337 
Burne-Jones, Lady, 13, 98, 231, 493, 

494 
Burne-Jones, Sir Edward, 13, 29, 65, 
138, 142, 157, 196, 221, 224, 230 to 
233, 246, 276, 277, 279, 280, 297, 
301, 303, 320, 347. 380, 383, 384, 
408, 493, 494, 495. 500, 512 
Adoration of the Kings b)', 221 
Buondelmonte by, 227 
Circe by, 395 
Cupid and Psyche by, 197 
Laus V'eneris by, 227 
St George and the Dragon by, 395 
Tannhaiiser Designs by, 197 
Burns, Robert, 505 
Burnside, General, 28 
Burritt, Elihu, 241 
Burroughs, John, 230, 240, 283 

Notes on Walt Whitman by, 230, 
283, 284, 365, 509 
Burton Crescent, London, 412 
Burton, Sir Frederick, 368 
Burton, Sir Richard, 394, 407 
Butterworth, 132, 133 
Butts, Thomas, 178 
Buxton, Mrs, 404, 405 
Byron, Lady, 401, 411, 467,480 
Byron, Lord, x., 159, 183, 381, 383, 385, 
386, 400, 401, 406, 411,426,460, 
463, 465, 466, 467, 480, 499, 502, 
514 
Byron, Mr, 406, 467 



Cadore, 363 
Caffe del Greco, Siena, 10 
Caff^ Sordello, Mantua, 313 
Cagnotte, La (play), 54 
Calais, 31, 38, 104, 267, 268 
Calais Museum, 31 
Calanda Mountaip, 124 



Calderon, P. H., 306 

Call, Mrs, 501 

Calvert, 297, 302 

Camerlata, 112 

Cameron, Consul, 394 

Cameron, Julia M., 4, 201, 202, 336 

Camillus, 260 

Campaldino, 510 

Can Grande della Scala, 348 

Canaletto, 438 

Cancellieri, 258 

Originalit;1 di Dante by, 258 
Canova, 1 15 

Bust of Napoleon by, 115 
Canzio, 192 
Canzio, Signora, 192 
Caprera, 187, 352, 354 
Carlisle, Earl of, 272 
Carlyle, Mrs, 97 
Carlyle, Thomas, ix,, 30, 39, 40, 41, 97, 

225, 260, 263, 264, 355, 356 
Carmarthen, Lady, 406, 467 
Carmine Church, Pavia, II 7 
Caroline, Queen, 112 
Cartledge, 194 

Cartledge's Temperance Hotel, Mat- 
lock, 193 
Carwardine, Major, 28 
Casa Magni, Lerici, 502, 530 
Casa, Monsignor della, 367 

Galateo by, 367 
Casentino, 344 
Castel Gandolfo, 1 1 
Catty, Colonel, 415, 416 
Catty, Mr, 414, 415 
Catty, Mrs, 414, 415, 416 
Caulah, 260 

Cavendish Square, 27, London, 438 
Cavour, 73, 74, I13, II4, I17, 225 
Cayley, C. B., 83, 84, 86, 102, 240, 318 
Cene della Chitarra, 490, 491 
Cerrigceinwen, 160 
Certosa, Pavia, 1 1 5, 116 
Cervoles, Arnauld de, 259 
Chaillu, P. J. du, 326 
Chalons-sur-Marne, 129 

Cathedral, 129 
Chalons-sur-Saone, 317 

Museum, 317 
Chambord, Comte de, 316, 43S 
Champagne, 130 
Champaigne, Philippe de, 33 
Chaninah, Rabbi, 486 
Chapman, George W., 195, 227, 228, 

329, 495 
Chapman and Hall, 299 
Chappell, 220 
Chardin, 55 



INDEX OF NAMES 



537 



Charles le Temeraire, Monument to, 38 

Chathana Place, 14, London, viii., 222, 
330 

Chaucer, 258, 339 

Knight's Tale by, 380 
Troylus by, 321, 326, 332 

Chaucer Society, 321 

Chelsea, 14 

Cheltenham, 374 

Chesneau, Ernest, 334 

Cheyne Walk, 16, Chelsea, viii., 2, 12, 
13, 15, 202, 221, 224, 232, 233, 234, 
240, 243, 246, 301, 302, 308, 319, 
321, 326, 329, 331, 334, 335, 383, 
386, 406, 407, 410, 415,418, 439, 
. 441, 452, 500, 504, 505 

Chiavenna, 122, 123 

Chiesa della Morte, Civita Vecchia, 387 

Chinon, 259 

Chivers, Dr, 180, 181 
Lost Pleiad etc. by, 180 

Christ Church, Albany Street, London, 
526 

Christ Church College, Oxford, 378 

Christchurch (Hants), 514 

Christen, 109 

Christie and Co., 40, 41, 227, 228, 298, 
302 

Chronicle, The, 231, 237, 240, 270, 
285 

Church, Mr, 270 

Cima da Conegliano, 389 
St Jerome in Desert by, 389 

Cino da Pistoia, 490, 491 

Citizen, The (newspaper), 270 

CiuUo d'Alcamo, 3 

Civita Vecchia, 289, 387, 388 

Clabburn, Mr, 66, 67 

Clabburn, Mrs, 67 

Clairmont, Allegra, 500 

Clairmont, Clare, 399, 500, 502 

Clairmont, Paola, 502 

Clare Market, London, 425 

Clarendon Press, Oxford, 7 

Clarges Street, London, 226 

Clark (b ilder), 301 

Clarke, Sir James, 255, 256 

Cleef, Nicholas van, 35 

Pictures of Antwerp by, 35 

Clint, George, 503, 516, 517 

Coblentz, 327 

Coire, 123, 125 

Coire Cathedral, 123 

Cole, Mrs Lionel, 390, 397, 406, 435, 
448 

Coleridge, S. T., 296, 305, 333, 499, 

504^, 505 
Christabel by, 296, 454 



Colet-Michel, Perot, T29 

Christ as Man of Sorrows by, 129 
Colico, 123 

Colleoni Chapel, Bergamo, 58 
Collingwood, W. G., 303 

Life of Ruskin by, 303 
Colnaghi, 228, 229 
Cologne, 404, 450 
Colonna, Francesco, 176 

Hypnerotomachia by, 176, 1 79 
Como, III, 112, 186 
Como Cathedral, ill, 112 
Como, Lake of, 112, 122 
Constable, John, 325 
Constance, 109, 308 
Constant, 261, 262 

Memoires sur Napoleon by, 261, 262 
Contemporary Review, The, 517 
Contrada del Gambero, Brescia, I18 
Contrada Sordello, Mantua, 313 
Conway, Moncure, 230, 240, 243, 244, 
274, 283, 285, 286, 287, 297, 342, 
356, 413, 508 
Cook, Eliza, 87, 88 
Cook, Keningale, 406 

Purpose and Passion by, 406 
Cooper, T. Sidney, 306 
Coppin, Captain, 243 
Cornelia, 260 

Cornhill Magazine, The, 443 
Coroneos, 331, 333, 337, 338, 340, 377, 

419 
Correggio, 31, 135, 136, 138, 31? 

Madonna and Child by, 31 
Corso di Porta Nuova, Milan, I14 
Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Milan, 113 
Cosenza, 314 
Cotman, J. S., 325 
Cotton, Alderman, 336 
Courbet, Gustave, 105, 184, 238 

Femme au Perroquet by, 238 

Fawns by a Stream by, 238 

Hallali au Cerf by, 238 

Proudhon and Family by, 105 
Counenay, Catherine, 158 
Cowper, Wm., 504 
Cox, David, 140, 233 
Coxcie, Michael, 37 

Adoration of the Spotless Lamb, by, 

37 
Cranach, 392 

Fall of Man by, 392 
Cranbrook, 201 
Craven, Frederick, 71, 90, 140, 197, 

391, 457, 458, 478 
Cresv\ick, Thomas, 4, 232 
Crete, x., 222, 226, 274, 299, 333, 412, 
414, 419 



538 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Critchett, Dr, 328, 329, 504 
Croce Bianca Hotel, Pavia, 116 
Croce di Malta Hotel, Lecco, 122 
Crome, John, 305 

Moonrise, by, 325 
Cromwell, Oliver, 260, 261, 425 
Cross, John, 154, 155, 156 

Coeur de Lion by, 154, 155 
Cruikshank, George, 198, 232, 300 

Worship of Bacchus by, 300 
Cruikshank, Mrs, 300 
Curran. Miss, 399 

Portrait of Miss Clairmont by, 399 

Portrait of Mrs Shelley by, 399, 
408 

Portrait of Shelley by, 399,474, 503, 

514, 515, 517 
Custozza, 309, 387 



D 

Dachsen, 124 

Dailly, 237 

Daily News, The, 499 

Daily Telegraph, The, 226, 235, 393, 

398, 4^8 
Dallas, E. S., 417 

The Gay Science by, 417 
Dalrymple, Lady, 105, 202 
Damascus, 246, 259 
Dance of Death, Lucerne, 108 
Dannreuiher, Mrs, 229 
Dante, ix., 10, 18, 80, 132, 170, 183, 209, 
215, 219, 226, 236, 247 to 250, 254, 
343, 348, 35i> 352- 397, 39^ 

Convito by, 344 

De Monarchia iDy, 351 

Divine Comedy by, 74, 80, 85, 86, 
90, 216, 344, 351 

Lord Vernon's Edition of, 448, 480 

Vita Nuova by, 80, 291 
Daphne, Mr, 425, 426 
Davenport Brothers, the, 68, 69, 168, 

177 
David, Gerard, 38 

Cambyses and Unjust Judge by, 38 
David, J. L., 55, 179,232, 427 

Madame Recamier by, 55 
David, King, 260 
Davies, Wm., 163 

Pilij;rimage of the Tiber by, 163 
Day and Son, 227 
Dazeglio, 308 
De Hooghe, 35 
Deacon, 390, 435 
Deagostini, 411 
Decamps, 232 



Delacroix, Eugfene, 54, 232 
Education of Achilles by, 55 
Heliodorus by, 54 
Herodotus and Magi by, 55 
Hesiod and Pythoness by, 55 
Jacob wrestling with the Angel by, 

54 
Michael and Satan by, 54 

Delaroche, Paul, 427 

Delaunay, 238 

Delii, Dello, 308 

Derar, 260 

Derby, Earl of, 204 

Dessoye, Madame, 55, 105, 130, 238 

Deverell, Miss, 507 

Deverell, Walter H., 68, 70, 210, 212, 
506 
Banishment of Hamlet by, 506, 507 
Irish Beggars by, 506, 507 

Devil's Bridge, St Gothard, 109 

Devil's Punch-bowl, Girvan, 238 

Devonshire, 273 

Devonshire, Duke of, 272 

Dickins, Mrs, 336 

Dieppe, 54, 59, 131 

Dilberoglue, Stauros, ix., 222, 252, 296, 
331, 333, 336, 337, 338, 340, 378, 
396, 413 

Dixon, J. H., 418 

Dixon, Mrs, 340, 341 

Dixon, Thomas, 179, 180, 263, 340 

Dixon, W, Hepworth, 327 

Dodgson, Rev. C. L., 236 

Doeg, 408 

Doellinger and Klee, 416 
Janus by, 416 

Dolby, Miss, 384 

Domnewa, 261 

Don Saltero's Tavern, Chelsea, 301 

Donatello, 190 

Virgin and Child by, 39 1 

Donders, 369 

Donne, John, 378 

Metempsychosis by, 378 

Donnet, 321 

Dore, Gustave, 242, 319 

Dover, 31 

Dover Street, London, 412 

Dowden, Prof., xi., 517 

Essay on Whitman by, xi., 517, 519 

Downey, 136, 137, 138 

Dreux, 259 

Dublin, 90 

DuMin University, 518 

Ducal Palace, Venice, 315 

Dudley Galleiy, London, 224, 329, 361, 
379, 440 

Due Macelli, Via de', Rome, 388 



INDEX OF NAMES 



539 



Duffy, Dr, 389, 390, 391, 435, 436 

Dumas, Alexandre, 190 

Dumas Fils, 104 

Dunlop, Walter, viii., ix., 60, 61, 144 to 

147, 150. 151 
Dunn, H. Treffry, 233, 272, 321, 322, 

326, 329, 407, 504, 527 
Duomo Nuovo, Brescia, 118 
Durer, Albert, 138, 353 
Durham, Arthur, 323 
Durham (County), 523 



Early English Text Society, 199 
Eastlake, Sir C, L,, 178, 179, 288, 

427 
Eastwood, 7 
Eckley, Mrs, 392 

Eco di Savonarola (magazine), 118 
Edinburgh, 198 
Egbright, King, 261 
Egham, 380 
Egypt, 128, 259 
Elgin Road, London, 157, 158 
Elise, 500 
Elliot and Fry, 227 
Ellis, F. S., 297, 383, 408, 495, 498, 

499, 500, 512 
Emek Hamelek, 485, 486 
Emerson, R. W., 240, 296, 386, 508 

Lecture on Plato by, 296 
Emma (servant), 467, 468 
Ems, 403, 458, 463 
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 261 
Endsleigh Gardens, 5, London, ix., 231, 

236, 240, 241, 246, 29S, 305, 320, 

326, 327, 328, 330, 334. 338, 339, 

378, 384,408, 414,498 
England, 27, 46, 52, 177, 227, 232, 

483, 513 
Ei.glish Dictionary (Oxford), 6 
Enson, 46 
Ertborn (Van) Collection, Antwerp, 

34 
Esdaile, Mrs, 374 
Eton School, 522, 523 
Etoniana, 522 
Etretat, 335 
Euston Square, 56 {see Endsleigh 

Gardens, 5) 
Evans, 16 

Examiner, The, 179, 193 
Exposition, Paris, 104, 105, 184, 228, 

232 
Eyre, Edw. J., 225 



Faber, 523 

Faenza, 354 

Faido, no 

Faithfull, Emily, 82 

Falerii, 260 

Famiglia (La) del Condannato (play), 
56 

Family Herald, The, 160 

Faruffini, 184 

Machiavel and Caesar Borgia by, 184 

Favart, Madame, 104, 238 

Felix (Hermit), 259 

Fenice Theatre, Venice, 57 

Ferdinand I. (Naples), 204 

Ferdinand II. (Do.), 317 

Ferguson, 16 

Ferney, 317 

Ferrari, Gaudenzio, ill 
Ancona by, 317 

Ferretti, Salvatore, 118 

Fiamma, 372 

Life of Tasso, by, 372 

Ficino, Marsilio, 258 

Field Place, Sussex, 375 

Fields, 180, 181, 512 

Fiesole, 256 

Fighisino, I18, 120 

Fine Arts Quarterly Review, 44, 48, 
227 

Flaxman, John, 178, 448 

Fleet Street, London, 258 

Floral Hall, London, 227 

Florence, 85, 91, 170, 177, 182, 183, 
187, 200, 208, 212, 216, 217, 225, 
241, 250, 254, 305, 321, 327, 343, 
368, 378, 382, 388, 393, 397, 434, 
502, 506, 510, 512, 513, 528 

Florence Cathedral, 308 

Fluelen, 109 

Folgore da San Gemignano, 491 
Sonnets on the Months by, 491 

Foligno, 434 

Ford, Mr, 379 

Ford, Prebendary, 1 02, 378 

Dante's Comedia translated by, 378, 

379 
Foreign Office (Rngland), 326 
Forli, Melozzo da, ill 
Forman, H. Buxton, 378 
Shelley, edited by, 416, 432 
The Rossettis by, 404, 458 
Forster, John. 368, 401, 427, 449 

Life of LanJor by, 401, 446 
Fortnightly Review, The, 226, 233, 301, 
305, 336, 380, 413, 430, 504, 517, 
518, 525, 528 
Foster, Birket, 222, 233 



540 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Fox, Charles J., 271, 272 

Fraissinet, 387 

France, 177, 204, 215, 227, 232, 310, 

426 
Francis, J. Deffett, 404, 405 
Francis II. (Naples), 11, 317 
Franciscan Church, Freiburg, 127 
Franklin, Admiral Sir John, 243 
Franklin, Lady, 243 
Fraser's Magazine, viii., 15, 26, 39, 63, 

197, 214, 365, 377, 392, 525 
Freckelton, 402 
Freiburg (Baden), 125, 126 
Freiburg Cathedral, 126, 127 
Freiburg Townhall, 126 
Frere, J. Hookham, 182, 183 
Frescobaldi, Dino, 491 
Frescobaldi, Matteo, 490, 491 
Freshwater Bay, 202 
Frith, W. P., loi, 268 

Charles II.'s Last Sunday by, 268, 
269 
Froude, J, A„ viii., 15, 39, 63, 377 
Fulham Road, London, 231 
Furnivall, Dr, 304, 307, 308, 321, 327, 

339, 380 
Furnivall, Mr, 380 
Fuseli, Henry, 24, 178 

Lycidas by, 300 

Nightmare (The) by, 300 



G,, 141, 144 

Gabriel, Virginia, 340 

Gainsborough, Thomas, 138, 239, 305 
Portrait of Lady Ligonier by, 239 

Galaxy, The (magazine), 270 

Galileo, 448 

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, Milan, 316 

Gamba, 372 

Testi di Lingua by, 372 

Gamba, Count Pietro, 355 

Gambart, Ernest, 2, 46, 47, 60, 61, loi, 
139, 164, 271 

Ganko, 500, 505 

Gardener, Colonel, 72 

Gardiner, S. R., 2^0 

Oliver Cromwell by, 260, 261 

Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 10, 11, 56, iii, 
117, 118, 122, 123, 187, 192, 196, 
208, 216, 230, 231, 248, 250, 254, 
272, 289, 310, 316, 317, 352, 371 

Garibaldi, Menotti, 316 

Garibaldi, Ricciotti, 316 

Garnett, Dr Richard, x., 332, 333, 382, 
385, 386, 392, 397. 399> 400> 4io. 
439. 430, 431 



Garrick Club, London, 87, 89, loo, loi 

Gavazzi, 225 

General Abbatucci (ship), 186 

Genoa, 187, 190, 191, 192 

Gentleman's Magazine, The, 425 

George III., 425 

George IV., 337 

George, King of Greece, 377, 419 

Georgia, U.S.A., 180 

Gerard, 427 

Germ, The (magazine), 490 

Germany, 310, 485 

Ghent, 31, 36, 37, 450 

Ghent Academy, 37 

Ghent Museum, 37 

Giardino Pubblico, Brescia, 120 

Giardino Pubblico, Milan, 112, 115 

Giardino Pubblico, Venice, 438 

Gilbert, W. S., 267 

Bab Ballads by, 267 
Gilchrist, Alexander, 5, 19, 20, 21, 41 

Life of Blake by, viii., 5, 6, 16, 21, 25, 
40,41,43,169,170,171,182,362 
Gilchrist, Herbert, 6 

Anne Gilchrist, Life etc. by, 6 
Gilchrist, Mrs, viii., x., 5, 6, 16, 40, 42, 
384,403, 404, 411, 417,418, 459, 460 

Letters on Walt Whitman by, 408 

4", 415 
Ginnasi, Count Ladislas, 354, 355 
Gioia, 367 

Galateo by, 367 
Giorgione, 33, 512, 513 

Malatesta and Pilgrim by, 389 
Giotto, II 

Pisa Frescoes by, 11, 12 

Portrait of Dante by, 92, 249, 343, 

509, 531 
Giraldi, 367 
Girardin, Emile de, 104 

Supplice d'une Femme by, 104 
Girodet, 427 
Girolamo dai Libri, 1 19 
Girtin, Thomas, 325 
Gisborne, Maria, 386, 432, 450, 451 
Gisborne, Mr, 432 
Giudecca, La, 56 
Giulio Romano, 31 1 
Giuseppe, 451, 452 
Giusti, Giuseppe, 8, 215, 216 
Gladstone, W. E., 17, 332 
Glasgow, 210, 414, 487, 488 
Globe, The (newspaper), 506 
Gloucester, 340 

Godefroi, Bishop of Amiens, 259 
Godfrey, Dan, 220 
Godiva, 341 
Gonthier, Pere, 263 



INDEX OF NAMES 



541 



Godwin, Mrs (Clairmont), 447 

Godwin, Mrs (WoUstonecraft), 514 

Godwin, VVm,, 447 

Goeihe, 520 

Good Words (magazine), 302 

Goodall, Dr Josepii, 522 

Goodwin, Albert, 415 

Gordon (Jamaica), 225 

Gordon (senior), 225 

Goss, Captain, 22 

Goya, 500 

Etcliings by, 500 
Gozzoli, II 

Annunciation (Pisa) by, 12 
Graham, Edward, 392 
Graham, Lorimer, 200 
Graham, Sir James, 207, 208 
Graham, Wm., x., 304, 327, 350, 472, 

478, 479, 486 
Grand Canal, Venire, 56 
Grande Place, Brussels, 32 
Grange (The), North End, Fulham, 

301 
Grant, General, 53 
Greece, 227, 252 
Grey, Mr, 196 
Grey, Mrs, 196 
Griffith, Dr, 523 
Griset, Ernest, 67, 68, 69, 72 
Gros, Baron, 427 
Grove, Harriet, 474 
Grove, Rev. Charles, 474 
Guasti, 397 
Gubbio, 344 
Guerin, 427 

Guiccioli, Countess, 355i 5^4 
Guinicelli, Guido, 491 
Gull, Sir Wm., 322, 324 
Gupiy, Mrs, 2g8, 304 
Gutenberg Statue, Strasburg, 127 



H 
H., 464, 465 
H. (G.), 464, 465 
Haden, Sir Seymour, 234, 235 
Haines, Wm., viii., 20, 21 
Hake, Dr, x., 410, 418, 470 

Madeline by, 417, 418 

Vates by, 410, 470 

World's Epitaph by, 410 
Hallam, Arthur, 392 

Remarks on Gabriele Rossetti by, 

392 
Halliday, Michael, 293, 295, 296, 297, 

331, 395, 396, 444 
Hamel, Ernest, 258 

Histoire de Robespierre by, 258 



Hamerton, P. G., 44, 70, 306 
Isles of Loch Awe by, 44, 70 
Reaction from Prseraphaelitism by, 

48 
River Yonne by, 49 
Sens from the Vineyards by, 49 
Theories Artistiques en Angleterre 

by, 45, 48 
Hamilton, Mr, 302, 303, 350 
Hammersmith Terrace, 10, 198 
Hannay, James, 319, 330 
Hannay, Mrs, 330 
Hannay, Mrs Margaret, 168 
Hapsburg, Countess of, 108 
Harding, J. D., 263, 264 
Hare, Dr, 501 
Harlan, 243 
Harrison, 198 
Harrow School, 297 
Harvard, 181 
Haslemere, 385 
Hastings, 72, 81 
Hastings, Warren, 272 
Hatfield Park, 327 
Havelock, General, 72 
Havering, 293 
Haydon, B. R., 173, 179 
Haynes, Mrs, 399 
Heaton, J. Aldam, 5, 60, 61, 144, 146, 

150 
Heaton, Miss, 295 
Heimann, Charles, 324 
Heimann, Dr, 72, 87, 324 
Heimann, Misses, 105 
Heimann, Mrs, 72, 73 
Helps, Sir Arthur, 200 

Essays in Intervals of Business by, 

200 
Henri III., 260 
Henri IV., 262, 263 
Henry V., 259 
Herod, King, 260 
Heugh, John, ix., 144, 147, 152 
Hewi, 159 

Highgate Cemetery, 168 
Hilliard, Miss, 196, 198 
Hine, Henry, 173, 174, 175 
Hiogo, 324 
Hirsch, 191 
Hirsch, Madame, 191 
Hitchener, Miss, 404, 405 
Hogarth, Wm., 239, 393 

Portrait of Thornhill by, 307 
Hogarth Club, 441 
Hogarth's Gate, Calais, 3 1 
Hogg, Mr, 382 

Hogg, Mrs, 373, 382, 398, 399, 4<^2. 
501, 502, 503 



542 



iNDfiX OF NAMES 



Hogg, T. Jefferson, 332, 405, 501, 503, 
510 
Life of Shelley, by, 332, 334, 375, 
382, 405, 409, 447, 501 
Hokusai, 105, 130, 339 
Holbein, 108, 135, 393, 423 

Works at Bale by, 108 
Holiday, Henry, 277 
Holland, James, 253 
Holman-Hunt, Cyril, 225, 298, 301 
Holman-Hunt, Mrs, 199, 200, 212, 225, 

382 
PIolman-Hunt, Wm., 30, 44, 46, loi, 
189, 200, 203, 212, 225, 241, 246, 
254, 255, 296, 298, 301, 303, 321, 
325, 328, 382, 389, 390, 391, 434, 
435, 480, 510 
Afteiglow in Egypt b}', 269 
Bianca (Taming of the Shrew) by, 

391 
Christ in the Temple by, 396 
Designs for Tennyson by, 30 
Isabella and the Pot of Basil by, 

241, 246, 298, 304 
London Bridge by, 305 
Moonlight at Salerno by, 395 
Portrait of Edith Waugh by, 305 
Portrait of Himself by, 298 
Portrait of Mrs Hoiman-Hunt by, 

305 
Portrait of Mrs AVaugh by, 2g8, 305 
Holmwood, Shiplake, 220, 221, 335, 

407, 410, 504 
Hoist, Mrs, 404 

Holy Sepulchre Church, Bruges, 38 
Home, Mr, 177, 179, 251, 255, 353, 

355 
Homer, 229, 476 

Iliad by, 229, 332 

Odyssey by, 258 
Hood, Thomas, 76 
Hooghe, De, 35 
Hook, W. C, 297 
Hookham, 401, 447 
Hooper, Mrs, 261 
Horace, 218 

Ars Poetica by, 218 
Home, R. H., 261 

Life of Napoleon by, 261 
Horsham, 393, 447 
Hospital of St John, Bruges, 37 
Hotel Cavour, Milan, 112, 316 
Hotel d'ltalia, Bergamo, 122 
Hotel Danieli, Venice, 313 
Hotel de Choiseul, Paris, 54 
Hotel de Cluny, Paris, 131 
Hotel de Flandres, Brussels, 31 
Hotel de I'Europe, Langres, 106 



Hotel de la Cloche d'Or, Chalons, 

129 
Hotel de la Couronne, Schaffhausen, 

125 
Hotel de la Maison Rouge, Strasburg, 

127 
Hotel de Normandie, Paris, 104, 130 
Hotel de Russie, Naples, 187 
Hotel de Ville, Antwerp, 34, 35 
Hotel de \^ille, Brussels, 32 
Hotel de Ville, Paris, 54 
Hotel Dessin, Calais, 31, 38 
Hotel du Commerce, Bruges, 37 
Hotel du Cygne, Martigny, 317 
Hotel du Grand Laboureur, Antwerp, 

35 
Hotel du Sauvage, Bale, 107, 109 
Hotel Due Torri, Verona, 121 
Hotel Garni Sandwith, Venice, 313 
Hotel Lukmanier, Coire, 123 
Hotten, J. Camden, 192 to 195, 197, 

199, 200, 206, 224, 234, 239, 240, 

242, 243, 244, 274, 286, 287, 297, 
305, 306, 308, 320, 342, 380 

Houghton, A. Boyd, 195, 196, 223, 242, 

243, 244, 284, 380, 381 
Arabian Nights Designs by, 196 

Houghton, Lord, 171, 230 
Howard, Lady Isabella, 98 
Howell, Charles A., loi, 195, 196, 198, 
222, 225, 227, 230 to 233, 236, 238, 
240, 246, 267, 297, 300, 302, 303, 
320, 321, 322, 328, 334, 339, 360, 
361, 380, 383, 394, 407, 495 
Howell, Mrs, 236 
Howitt, Wm., 516 

Howitt- Watts, Anna Mary, 2i8, 219 
Hueffer, Catherine, 199, 362 
At the Opera by, 393 
Portrait of Madox Brown by, 463, 

464 
Portrait of Miss Epps by, 379 
Portrait of Mrs Madox Brown by, 

464, 504 

Hueffer, Ford M., 173 

Cinque Ports (The) by, 261 
F. M. Brown by, 173, 253, 493 

Hueffer, Franz, 492, 496 

Hughes, Arthur, 139, 223, 494 
Belle Dame sans Merci by, 139 
Enoch Arden Designs by, 381 

Hugo, Victor, 226, 335, 402, 407, 498 
Hernani by, 238 
L' Homme qui Rit by, 395 

Hullah, John, 337 

Humbert, King, II4, I15, 310 

Humphrey, Ozias, 24 

Hunt, Alfred W., 232 



INDEX OF NAMES 



543 



Hunt, Leigh, 179, 183, 336, 373, 399, 
402, 474, 501, 510, 514, 530 
Correspondence of, 392 
Hunt, Mrs Alfred W., 232, 233 
Hunt, Mrs Leigh, 402 
Hunt, Thornton, 235, 399, 503 
Hunt, Wm. Henry, 140 
Hunter Street, London, 240 
Huth, 338 



I 



Illustrated London News, The, 

55 
Inchbold, J. W., 8, 9, 64, 65, 380, 396, 

495 

Porto del Mare, \^enice, by, 438 

Stonehenge by, 438, 439 

Venice by. 439 
Ind, Coope, & Co., 280 
Independance Beige, La, 12 
Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 351 
India, 196, 239 
Ingelow, Jean, 70, 81, 82, 84, 88, 95, 

227, 247, 379 
Ingelow, Mr, 95 
Ingres, 232, 427 

Inland Revenue Office, London, 165 
Intellectual Repository, The, 516 
International Exhibition, 1862, 3, 5, 

.54 
lonides, Alecco, 226 
lonides, Constantine, 318 
lonides, Miss Qee Dannreuther, Mrs) 
lonides (Senior), 229 
Ireland, 334 
Isle of Wight, 326, 385 
Italy, viii., ix., x., II, 13, 95, 127, 208, 

215, 216, 218, 225, 231, 246, 289, 

310, 360 



Jamaica, 225 

James I. of Scotland, 237 

The King's Ouair by, 237 
James II., 71 
James, Sir Walter, 346 
Jameson, Mrs, 401 
Jamrach, 242, 407 
Japan, 130, 138, 400 
Jardin de Zoologie, Antwerp, 36 
Jardin des Plantes, Paris, 130 
Jardin Zoologique, Marseilles, 1 85 
Jarves, J. J., 389 



Jarves, Mrs, 389 

Jeckyll, 245 

Jeffery, 210, 213 

Jena, 261 

Jenner (Edinburgh), 324 

Jenner, Sir Wm., 96, 297, 324, 41O1 

417 
Jerusalem, 189, 225, 241, 389 
Johnson (Manchester), 300 
Johnson, President, 419 
Jolly (Actor), 32 
Jones, Ebenezer, 323 

Studies of Sensation and Event by, 

323 
Jopling, Joseph, 224 

Lady Maggie by, 224 
Jordaens, 32 
Josephine, Empress, 262 
Josephus, 260 

Antiquities of the Jews by, 260 
Jungfrau, The, 125 



K 

Kaled, 260 

Kardec, Alain, 531 

Keate, Dr, 522, 523 

Keats, John, 30, 182, 366, 381, 402, 

499. 505 
Isabella by, 99 
Keeling, 337 
Keightley, Misses, 166 
Keightley, Mrs Wm. S., 166 
Keightley, Thomas, 79, 165, 170, 171, 
172 
Milton, edited by, 80 
Shakespear Expositor by, 79, 80 
Keightley, Wm. S., 166 
Kent, Charles, 351 

Review of Whitman by, 351 
Kilkerran Castle, 238 
Kilmarnock, 453 
King's College, London, 183 
Kipling, Mrs, 98, 99 
Kipling, Rudyard, 98 
Kirke, Colonel, 71, 72 
Kirkup, Barone, ix., 170, 176, 215, 218, 
226, 236, 313, 326, 367, 388, 391, 
435, 501, 530 
Portrait of Lady Jane Swinburne by, 
221 
Kirkup, Miss, 183, 248, 249, 252, 352 

to 353 
Kleber Statue, Strasburg, 127 
Knewstub, W. J., 14, 15, 223, 497 
Knight, Joseph, 228,415, 504 
Knight, Mrs, 228 



544 



INDEX OF NAMES 



La Faroe, John, 304 
Browning's Men and Women, 

Designs by, 349 
Enoch Arden, Designs by, 349 
Pied Piper of Hamelin b)', 304, 306, 

349 

Wolf-charmer (The), by, 349 
Lago di Garda, 120 
Lago Maggiore, iii, 317 
Lamb, Charles, 258 
Lambron, 105 

Virgin and Child by, 105 
Landor, Walter S., 183, 368, 449 
Langres, 106 

Langres Cathedral, 106, 107 
Langres Museum, 107 
Lannes, Marshal, 261 
Lansdowne, Marquis of, 204 
Lasinio, Paolo, 449 
Latini, Brunetto, 3 
Lauffenburg, 126 
Lavers and Barraud, 277 
Layard, A. H., 336 
Leader, J. Temple, 288, 353, 398 
Lear, Edward, 493 

Book of Nonsense by, 493 
Leathart, James, ix., 14, 66, 265 
Leatherhead, 336 
Lecco, 122, 123, 309, 311 
Ledru-Rollin, 402 
Lee, General, 358 
Leeds, 329 

Leeds Exhibition, 295, 296, 371 
Leghorn, 11, 187, 204, 501, 530 
Legros, Alphonse, 67, 227, 232, 318 

Amende Honorable by, 318 

Ex Voto by, 318 

Martyrdom of St Sebastian by, 318 

Portrait of Burne-Jones by, 318 

St Stephen by, 318 
Legros, Mrs, 82 
Leifchild, Frani<lin, 240 
Leigh, Hon. Mr, 411 
Leigh, Hon. Mrs. 406, 411, 465, 

467 
Leigh, Medora, 411 
Leighton, Lord, 222, 230 
Leismann, 503 

Portrait of Himself by, 503 
Lempri^re's Classical Dictionary, 456 
Leonardo Aretino, 215, 254 

Life of Dante by, 251 
Leopold, Grand Duke, 204, 208 
Lerici, 240 
Leslie, C. R., 242, 499 

Autobiography of, 242 



Lesueur, 33 

St Bruno by, 33 
Lewes, G. H., 336, 372, 373, 382, 383 
Lewes, Mrs, 382, 383, 523 
Lewis, J. F., 325 

Lion and Lioness by, 325 
Lewis, Mrs, 390, 435 
Leyland, F. R., 224, 239, 243, 244, 
266, 271, 302, 307, 308, 320, 321, 

350, 407 
Leys, Baron, 5, 32, 34, 463, 464 
Lido, The (Venice), 438 
Li^ge, Bishop of, 259 
Lille, 38 
Lima, 196 
Limerick, 57 

Lincoln, President, 181, 240, 319 
Lincoln's Inn Fields, viii. 
Lindsey Row, Chelsea, 222 
Linnell, John (Junior), viii,, 17 
Linnell, John (Senior), 17, 20, 21, 27, 

43 
Linton, W. J., 196, 240, 241, 391, 440 

History of Wood-engraving by, 240, 
246 
Lippi, Lippo, 10, 105 

Virgin and Child by, 105 
Liston, 210 

Literary Gazette, The, 400 
Little Holland House, London, 201, 202 
Littledale, Dr, 239, 416 
Liverati, C. E., 176, 205 

Portrait of Gabriele Rossetti by, 176, 
178, 205, 353 
Liverpool, 2, 304 
Livingstone, Dr, 325, 326 
Livingstone, Mr, 326 
Livy, 260 

Llandaff Cathedral, 50, 209 
Llangollen, 515 
Llanos, Mrs, 503 
Lloyd's Newspaper, 351 
Loader, 223 
Locker-Lampson, Frederick, 392, 411, 

412, 413, 491 
Lodovico il Moro, 116 
Lombardi, I20 
Lombardy, 122 
London, 5, 39, 59, 68, 189, 192, 238, 

319. 340. 391, 412, 450, 479, 500 
Longfellow, H. W., 91, 102, 319, 381, 
385, 386, 402, 512 

Dante translated by, 91, 237, 258 
Lonsdale, Mrs, 503 
Losh, Miss, 452, 455, 457 
Louis, St, 259 
Louis XI., 259 
Louis XIV., 262 



INDEX OF NAMES 



545 



Louis XVI., 109, 130, 258, 271, 272 

Louis XVI IL, 31 

Louis Philippe, King, 123, 513 

Louvre, The, 55, 105 

Lowe, Sir Hudson, 221 

Lowell, J. Russell, 168, 169, 180, 181, 

459 
Lucas, Samuel, 87, 88 
Lucerne, 106, 108, 109 
Lucerne Cathedral, 108 
Lucerne, Lake of, 411 
Ludlow, Mrs, 81, 82 
Ludwigshohe, Freiburg, 127 
Ludwigskirche, Freiburg, 127 
Lugano, III 
Luyano Cathedral, III 
Lugano, Lake of, III 
Luini, Bernardino, iii, 316 

Christ in the Desert by, 1x5 

Eg3'^ptians in Red Sea by, 115 

Padre Eterno by, II5 

Virgin and Child and St Jerome b)^, 
III 

Virgin, Child, and Saints, b)', 114 

Vulcan's Forge by, 115 

Women Bathing by, 115 
Lupi, Sancio, 259 
Lush, Mr, 193 
Luxembourg Gallery, 318 
Lyell, Charles, 176, 178 
Lymouth, 261 
Lyon, Mrs, 255, 353 
Lyra Mystica, 76, 84 
Lyster, A. C, 165, 166, 167, 303 
Lyster, Misses, 166, 167 
Lyster, Mrs, 166 
Lytton, Lord, 462 



M 



MacClintock, Admiral, 243 
MacConnel, 345 
Macfarren, G. A., 338 

Songs in a Cornfield, Sonata by, 
338, 384, 423 
Machiavelli, 368, 448 
Maclellan, General, 28 
Maclennan, J. F., 229 

Primitive Marriage by, 229 
Maclise, Daniel, 306 
Macmillan, Alexander, 50, 82, 88, 94, 
99, 199. 222, 224, 242, 245, 498, 
499 
Macmillan's Magazine, 44, 68, 69, 96, 

99, 377, 517 
Macon, 12 
MacShane, 280 



Madonna del Carmelo (Church), Milan, 

114 
Madonna di Monte Berico (Church), 

\'^icenza, 57 
Maenza, C. P., 322 
Maenza, Ma ame, 322, 360 
Mai^enta, 316 
Maggi, Prof., 182, 183, 343 
Magiiabecchian Library, Florence, 397, 

449, 480 
Mahabharata, The, 380 
Maitland, J. Fuller, 43 
Malespini, 367 
Malory, Sir Thomas, 341 

Mort Arthur by, 341 
Manchester, 244, 472 
Manet, Edouard, 105 

Olympic by, 105 
Manso, 371, 372 
Mantegna, Andrea, 311, 312 
Mantua, 311, 313, 314 
Mantua Cathedral, 311 
Marie Antoinette, 258 
Marietta, 250, 251 
Marini, 344 
Marks, Murray, 195, 222, 233, 234, 

339 
Marlow, Great, 261, 380, 515 
Marochetti, Baron, 321 

Emanuel Philibert Monument by, 
321 
Marseilles, 185, 387 
Marshall, John, 201. 230, 327, 329, 414 
Marshall, Mr, 154, 155, 157, 2IO, 213 
Marshall, Mrs, 154 to 158, 160, 161, 

210, 213 
Marshall, Mrs (Junior), 154 to 158, 

160, 161, 2X0, 2IX 
Marshall, Mrs Peter P., 379 
Marshall, Peter P., 14, 22, 47, 203, 

379 
Marston, Dr Westland, 504 
Martigny, 3x7 
Martin, Eliza, 224 

Life is not good, by. 224 
Martineau, R. B., 200, 384, 395 
Mary (of Naples), 189 
Mary, Queen of Scots, 35 
Masini, xo 
Mason, George, 297, 402, 439 

View of Keats's Tomb by, 402 
Massey, Gerald, 218, 2x9 

On Shakespear's Sonnets by, 2x9 
Masson, Mrs, 200 
Matha, Jean de, 259 
Matthews, C. P., 268, 269, 280, 295, 

296, 308, 350 
Mauban, 238 

2 M 



546 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, II2 
Mayer, 303, 304 

Mazzini, 196, 208, 215, 226, 230, 231, 
245, 248, 319, 330, 335, 336, 371, 
394, 402, 407 
Meaux, 130, 250 
Medici, Alessandro de', 247 
Medici, Catherine de', 260 
Medici, Lorenzino de', 226, 247, 252 
Mediterranean Sea, 466 
Medwin, Captain, 183, 393, 510 
Memling, Hans, 34 

Chasse de Ste. Ursule by, 37 
Madonna and Child by, 38 
Marriage of St Catharine by, 37 
St Hubert by, 34 
Menabrea, General, 509, 510 
Mentone, 225 
Meo, Gaetano, 175 
Mercati, Michele, 258 
Meredith, George, 64 
Meuse, The, 259 
Mexico, 289 
Mexico, Gulf of, 357 
Mezerai, 259 

Histoire de France by, 259 
Michelangelo, 38, 252, 392, 393, 529 
Brutus, Head of, by, 252 
Virgin and Child (Bruges) by, 38 
Mirhelet, 258 

Jeanne d'Arc by, 258 
Michelozzo, 190 
Middleton, C. S., 474 
Milan, 8, 55, II2, 113, 122, 183, 310, 

316 
Milan Cathedral, 112, 114, 316 
Mill, J. Stuart, 193, 335 
Millais, Lady, 9, 226 
Millais, Sir Everett, 297 
Millais, Sir John E., 46, loo, 296, 297, 
306, 331, 396, 408 
Huguenot (The) by, 144 
Jephtha's Daughter by, 231 
Lorenzo and Isabella by, 298, 300, 

321 
Mariana by, 144 
Pilgrims to St Paul's by, 322 
Ransom (The) by, 269 
Romans leaving Britain by, 134 
Vanessa by, 393 
Wandering Thoughts by, 300 
Miller, John, 2, 232, 233 
Miller, Miss, 379 
Millet, J. F., 318 
Milton, John, 80, 319, 320, 505 
Minerva, Church of the, Rome, 388 
Minerva Hotel, Rome, 388 
Minto, Jarvis, I $6 



Minto, Mrs, 156 
Mississippi, The, 357 
Mitchell (Bradford), 1 32, 407 
Mitchell, W. C., 323, 324 
Modena, Duke of, 371 
Moehrer, 327 
Molo, The, Naples, 188 
Monmouth, Duke of, 72 
Mont Blanc, 1 14 
Montagna, B., 57 

Pieta by, 57 
Montagu, Basil, 401, 446 
Monte Cenere, iii 
Monte Oliveto Church, Naples, 1 89 
Monte Rosa, 114 
Montorsoli, 187 

Madonna with dead Christ by, 187 
Montpensier, Due de, 513 

Head of Shelley by, 513, 514, 515 
Montreuil (Boulogne), 334 
Moore, Albert, 64, 65, 384 

Azaleas by, 322 
Moore, Thomas, 385, 386, 402, 409, 

514 
Moretto, II, 118, 119 
St Ursula by, 120 
Supper at Emmaus by, 119 
Virgin and Child with Saints by, I20 
Morland, George, 47 
Morley, Henry, 193 
Morley, John, 193, 197, 336, 430 
Morning Post, The, 307 
Morning Star, The, 244 
Moro, 314 
Morone, 122 
Morpeth, 508 

Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, & Co., ix., 
5,14,65,219,276,280, 339.525,526 
Morris, Mrs, 296, 302, 304, 384, 391, 
403, 404, 437, 449, 450, 458, 463, 
512, 529 
Morris, VVm., 66, 167, 203, 246, 276 
to 280, 302, 303, 330, 332, 346, 347, 
383, 402, 403, 449, 450, 464, 500, 
505, 518, 521, 525, 528, 529 
Defence of Guenevere etc., by, 66 
Earthly Paradise by, 330, 383, 512 
Grettir the Strong, translated by, 

330 
Life and Death of Jason by, 199, 233, 
236. 273, 299 
Morse, 448 

Morten, Mrs, 195, 381 
Morten, Thomas, 195, 210 

Council before Eve of St Bartholo- 
mew by, 195 
Moscow, 413 
Moses Nachmani, 484 



INDEX OF NAMES 



047 



Mostaert, Jean, 38 

Mater Dolorosa by, 38 
Mount St Gothard, no, 114, 123 
Moxon, Edward, 423 
Moxon & Co., 197, 199, 200, 206, 224, 

307, 333, 378, 401, 403, 409. 410, 

414, 416, 417, 418, 428, 498, 505, 

508 
Moxon's Popular Poets, x., 381, 383 to 

386, 401, 410, 412, 420, 421, 465, 

498 
Monro, Alexander, 396 
Muntham Court, 298 
Murano, 9, 438 
Murray, C. Fairfax, 407, 433 
Murray, John, 229 
Murray's Handbook, Italy, 112, 1 13, 

116, 118, 119, 188, 312, 389 
Musee Campana, Paris, 105 
Museo Antiquario, Mantua, 312 
Museo Civico, Brescia, 119 
Museo Civico, Milan, 113 
Museo Patrio, Brescia, 118 
Musset, Alfred de, 247 
Lorenzaccio by, 247 



N 



Nannucci, 3, 490 

Manuale della Letteratura by, 3 
Naples, ix., I15, 178, 186 to 189, 191, 
204, 209, 213, 225, 328, 387, 390, 
393. 500 
Naples Museum, 187 
Napoleon I., 221, 261, 262, 438 
Napoleon III., 12, 115, 116, 117, 125, 

208, 248, 272, 288, 289 
Nation, The (Review), 270 
National British Gallery, 199, 203, 

486 
National Gallery, 11, 21, 222, 235, 

318, 383 
National Portrait Gallery, 503 
Natoli, 249 
Nazareth, 465 
Nebuchadnezzar, 484 
Neeve, Miss, 190 
Nelson, Lord, 271 
Nemi, 11 
Nettleship, J. T., 339, 384, 41°. 4l6 

God creating Evil by, 339 

Lion and Lioness by, 502 
Neuhausen, 126 
New Monthly Magazine, 523 
New Testament, 161 
New York, 357 
New York Times, 270 



New York Tribune, 355 
Newcastle-on-Tyne, 28, 159, 210, 212, 

323 
Newhaven, 54, 59, 131, 184 
Newman, Cardinal, 520 
Nibelungenlied, 330 
Nice, 192, 256 
Nicholson, Baron, 337 
Nicholson, Margaret, 425 
Niepce de St Victor, 318 
Nimmo, 381 
Nineveh, 455 
Noe, Vicomte de, 105 
North American Review, 162, 168, 193, 

206 
North British Review, 481, 526 
North End, Fulham, 320 
North Parish Magazine, Greenock, 65 
Northern Daily Express, 207 
Northiam House, 201 
Northumberland, 523 
Norton, Mrs, 29, 169, 433, 437, 528 
Norton, Prof., ix., 12, 13, 91, 162, 206, 

386, 506 
On Portraits of Dante by, 92 
Not, Dr, 288 
Notes and Queries, x., 80, 299, 301, 

307, 415, 418, 461, 462, 522 
Notre Dame, Bruges, 38 
Notre Dame des Sablons, Brussels, 32 
Notre Dame, Paris, 106, 131, 185 



O 



O'Brien, Lucius, 57 
O'Brien, W. Smith, 57 
Observer, The, 483 
Ockley, Simon, 260 

History of the Saracens by, 260 
O'Connor, W. D., x., 180, 244, 270, 
403, 404, 411, 415 

Good Grey Poet (The) by, 180, l8l, 
285, 287 

Harrington by, 181 
Odo delle Colonne, 461 
Old West Kirk, Greenock, 65 
Olimpia, 248, 249, 250, 254, 352, 353 
Oliphant, Francis, 210, 211 
Once a Week (magazine), 87, 88, 302 
O'Neil, Henry, 242 
Ongar, 362 
Opie, John, 363 

Death of Rizzio by, 363 
Orcagna, 11 

Ascension by, li 

Last Judgment by, II 

Triumph of Death by, 11 



548 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Orley, Bernard van, 33 
Last Judgment by, 34 
Pietii, by 33 

Orme, Mrs, 200 

Orsini, Assunta, 176, 177 

Orsini, Felice, 312 

O'Shaughnessy, Arthur, 496 

Ospedale Maggiore, Milan, 115 

Otley, 425, 426 

Outis (_see Tupper, J. L,) 

Oxford, 25, 403, 407 



P. R. B., 30, 468 

Pacini, 55 

Saffo, Opera by, 55 
Padua, 117 

Palace Yard, Westminster, 321 
Palais Royal Theatre, Paris, 54 
Palazzo Brignole-Sale, Genoa, 187 
Palazzo Carignano, 74 
Palazzo del T., Mantua, 311 
Palazzo Doria, Genoa, 187 
Palazzo Durazzo, Genoa, 187 
Palazzo Municipale, Brescia, 118 
Palazzo Reale, Milan, 115 
Palermo, 186 

Palgrave, F. T., 43, 92, loi, 234, 242, 
332, 423 

Golden Treasury, edited by, 424 
Palgrave, Gwenllian, 423 

Memorial of F. T. Palgrave by, 423 
Pall Mall Gazette, 63, 92, 393, 506 
Pallavicini, Marquis, 192 
Palmer, Samuel, 41, 42 
Palmerston, Lord, 161, 205 
Palustre de Montifaut, 425 

De Paris a Sybaris by, 425 
Panizzi, Sir Anthony, 176, 178 
Paolo Veronese, 32, 117, 315 

Adoration of Magi by, 32 

Cena di San Gregorio by, 57 

Holy Family and St Catharine by, 
32 

Martyrdom of St Afra by, 1 18 
Paris, 8, 54, 59, 104, 130, 177, 184, 212, 
213, 238, 258, 259, 288, 308, 317, 
318, 387, .427 
Paris International Exhibition, 1867, 

228 
Parke, Louisa, 166, 167 
Parker, 392 
Parks, Mrs, 355 
Parma Cathedral, 138 
Parsons, J. R., 339 
Patay, 258 



Patmore, Coventry, 296 
Patmore, Mrs Coventry, 200 
Paul, Benjamin H., 330 
Pavia, 116, 117 
Pavia Cathedral, 116, 117 
Payne, J. Bertrand, 200, 206, 207, 307, 
331 to 335, 381, 382, 384, 385, 386, 

395, 397, 409, 411, 412, 420 to 423, 
505 

Payne, J. Burnell, 306, 307, 462, 

463 
Peacock, T. L., 392, 407, 503, 510 
Pedrocchi, 8 
Peel, Sir Robert, 41 
Pelham-Maitland, 190 
Pelli, 216 
Penkill Castle, x., 158, 237, 238, 324, 

325, 326, 329, 330, 332, 369, 372, 

396, 404, 412, 417, 464, 473 
Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, 492 
Pepper, Prof., 54 

Peschiera, 120, 311 
Peter (of Damascus), 260 
Petrarca, 527 

First Sonnet of, 527 
Petrella, Castle of, 425 
Petropoulaki, 419 
Petworth, 23 
Phidias, 179 
Philippe Egalite, 513 
Phillips, Thomas, 42 

Portrait of Blake by, 42 
Philological Society, 6 
Photographic Exhibition, London, 103 
Piani, Andrea, 317 

Adoration of Shepherds by, 317 
Piazza d'Armi, Milan, 1 1 3, 1 14 
Piazza del Popolo, Rome, 10 
Piazza del Popolo, Siena, 10 
Piazza dell' Erbe, Verona, 121 
Piazza San Martino, Florence, 249 
Piazza Santo Spirito, Florence, 388 
Piccadilly, 44, 49, 70, 78, 89, 132 
Piccole (Le) Miserie (play), 311 
Pierre a Voire, Martigny, 317 
Pietro Aretino, 367, 368 

Dialogue on Cards by, 367 

Ragionamenti by, 367 
Pietrocola, 190 
Pietrocola-Rossetti, Mrs Qee Cole, 

Mrs Lionel) 
Pietrocola-Rossetti, Teodorico,ix., 8,84, 
118, 190, 217, 388, 389, 390, 397, 
426, 435, 436, 448, 469, 501, 530, 

• 531 

Memoir of Gabriele Rossetti by, 8 

Mercato de' Folletti, translation by, 
217 



INDEX OF NAMES 



549 



Pille, 184 

Duke of Saxony at Chess by, 184 
Pim, Captain, 414 
Pisa, 10, II, 256, 530 
Pisa Baptistery, 11 
Pisa Campo Santo, II 
Pius IX., II, 208, 209, 388 
Plato, 70 

Plint, E. T., 2, 139 
Pliny, 478 
Plymouth, 432 
Poe, Edgar A., 303 
Polidori, Argia, 217 
Polidori, Charlotte, 223, 224, 298, 340, 

411, 526 
Polidori, Dr John, 159, 340 

The Vampyre by, 159 
Polidori, Eliza, 224, 334 
Polidori, Filippo, 217, 218, 510 
Polidori, Luigi, 217, 510 
Polidori, Margaret, 222, 223, 224, 526 
Poliziano, Angelo, 236 
Pollen, J. Hungerford, 299, 500 

Catalogue of Books on Art by, 299 
Polydore, Henrietta (Junr.), 72, 89 
Polydore, Henrietta (Senr.), 303, 304 
Polydore, Henrj', 73, 303, 340, 409 
Poniatowski, Joseph, 208 
Pont de I'Alma, Paris, 238 
Ponte Nuovo, Verona, 121 
Poole, P. F., 269 
Pope, Alexander, 498 
Porta Nuova, Arch of, Milan, 114 
Porta Romana, Milan, 115 
Portfolio, The (magazine), 415, 431 
Posilipo, Grotto of, 188 
Potter, Cipriani, 379 
Poussin, Nichojas, 13, 232 

Infant Moses by, 13 
Powell, 335. 

Prseraphaelite Exhibition, 1857, 30 
Preston, 232 
Preti Calabrese, 33 
Pride, General, 261 
Prince Imperial (France), 262 
Prinsep, Mrs, 201, 403 
Prinsep, Valentine C, loi, 201, 202, 

494 
Printemps, 262 

Priory, The, North Bank, London, 373 
Pritchard, Dr, 210, 213 
Procaccini, 114 
Procter, Bryan W., 221 
Prudhon, 427 
Prussia, 186, 208, 289 
Purchase, Rev. Mr, 335 
Purnell, Thomas, 504 
Pyne, Miss, 220 



Q 



Queen Square, Bloomsbukv, 167, 

278 
Queen's Messenger, The (magazine), 

412 
Quillac's Hotel, Calais, 31 
Quilter, Harry, 493 

Preferences in Art by, 493 



R 



Radcliffe, Dr, 438 
Radetsky, Count, 112 
Radicofani, 10 
Rae, George, 486 
Ralston, Wm., 193, 194 
Raphael, 35. I19, 197 

La Vierge au Lange by, 35 
Rattazzi, Urbane, 272, 289 
Reade, Winwood, 176, 177 

Martyrdom of Man by, 176 
Reader, The (review), 91, 380 
Red Hill, 17 

Red Lion Square, 8, London, 65 
Redentore Church, Venice, 56 
Redgrave, Richard, 4 

Gulliver by, 4 

Ophelia by, 4 

The Widow by, 4 
Regina, 177, 183, 248, 249, 250, 

355 
Registrum Regale, 522 
Reichenau, X23 
Reid, 229 

Reid, Rev. Mr, 412 
Rembrandt, 32, 307 

Portrait by (Brussels), 32 
Renouard, Veuve, 184 
Restaurant Bertrand, Antwerp, 36 
Reuss, The, 109 
Reveley, Henry, 402, 432, 433 
Reveley, Mrs, 402 
Revue des Deux Mondes, 44, 45, 48 
Reynolds, Dr, 438 
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 239 

Portrait of Mrs Abington by, 239 
Rhine, The, 123, 124, 125, 204 
Rhine Bridge, Bale, 107 
Ribot, 185 

Christ among the Doctors by, 185 
Ricasoli, Baron, 208 
Riccia, La, 10, 11 
Ricciardi, Conte Giuseppe, 390, 393, 

410, 413, 416 
Richards, Colonel, 232 
Richmond, Virginia, 53, 358 



550 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Richmond, George, 41, 217, 234 

Portraits of William and Catherine 
Blake by, 41, 43 
Richmond Park, 329, 330 
Riddell, Mrs, 227 
Rietti (Venice), 56 
Rintoul, R. S., 337 
Ritchie, 260 

Letters of Jane Carlyle, edited by, 
260 
Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, 8, 55, 314 
Riva delle Zattere, Venice, 56 
Riviera di Chiaja, Naples, 188 
Riviere, 25 
Ri\ington, 236 
Robert, King of Naples, Monument to, 

189 
Robert's Bridge, Sussex, 499 
Roberts Brothers, 223, 234, 512 
Roberts, Captain, 182, 183 
Robertson, John For es, 304 
Robertson, Johnston, 304 
Robertson, T. W., 227 

Caste by, 227 
Robinson, Mr, 393 

The Troubadours by, 393 
Robinson, Sir Charles, 393 
Roebuck, A. J., 502 
Roland, 302 
Romanino and Gambara, 118 

Story of Lucretia by, 118 
Rome, viii., 10, 11, 12, 51, 52, 116, 177, 
192, 225, 231, 241, 272, 289, 310, 
319, 321, 351, 367, 378, 387, 390, 

434, 503 

Rome, King of, 262 

Ronchi (Hills), 119 

Roose, Nicholas, 36 

Coronation of the Virgin by, 36 

Rose, J. Anderson, 14, 225, 227, 333 

Rose and Rosemary (poem), 96 

Rose, Shamrock, and Thistle (maga- 
zine), 87, 88 

Rosenhiigel, Coire, 124 

Rossetti, Christina G., viii., ix., 4, 13, 50, 
67, 72, 85, 86, 96, 104, 105, 107, 
108, III, 112, 115, 122, 124, 168, 
188, 197, 199, 202, 205, 214, 223, 
227, 229, 234, 236, 241, 247, 255, 
271, 297, 298, 321, 337, 338, 341, 
392, 396, 404, 410, 462, 470, 47S, 
479, 498, 499 

Rossetti, Christina G. Wo)'h hy — 
After this the Judgment, 82, '83, 84, 

479 
Amor Mundi, 87, 88, 95 
Amore e Dovere, 98, 100 
At Home, 68, 69 



Rossetti, Christina G. — Continued 
Bird or Beast, 93 
Bird's-eye View, 99 
Birthday, A, 197 
Bourne, The, 98, 99 
By the Sea, 98, 99 
By the Waters of Babylon, 81, 82, 

84 
Come and See, 99 
Commonplace, 500 
Consider, 68 
Dead City, The, 98, loo 
Despised and Rejected, 479 
Dost Thou not care ?, 74, 479 
Easter Even, 98, 99 
Echo Soi.g, 340 
Eve, 74 

From House to Home, 72 
Ghost's Petition, The, 93, 94 
Goblin Market, 83, 217 
Goblin Market, and other Poems, 4, 

5, 6, 26, 50, 53, 72, 73, 81, 82, 

88, 93 
Gone for Ever, 99 
Grown and Flown, 74 
I will lift up mine Eyes etc., 98 
Iniquity of the Fathers, 83, 84, 93 
Jessie Cameron, 93 
L. E. L., 82, 97, 99 
Last Night, 68, 98 
Maiden-Song, 97 
Margery, 98, 99 
Martyrs' Song, 82, 83, 84, 479 
Maude Clare, 87 
My Dream, 68 
New Poems (1896), 98 
Old and New Year's Ditties, 236 
Poems in Macmillan's Magazine, 68, 

69 
Portrait, A., 98, 99 
Prince's (The) Progress, viii., 68, 69, 

72 to 75, 77, 78, 83, 87, 96 
Prince's (The) Progress, and Other 

Poems, viii., 50, 81, 193, 202 
Royal Princess, A., 87, 88, 97, 99 
Singsong, 498 
Sleep at Sea, 72 

Songs in a Cornfield, 88, 93, 94 
Spring Fancies, 68, 93, 94 
Three Nuns, 99 
To-morrow, 80, 81 
Triad (.^), 329 
Twilight Night, 80, 93 
Vanity of A^anities, 99 
Verses, 1847, 98, 99 
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, vii. to xi., 1,3, 5, 
12,14,15,30, 31, 33, 35. 37. 39.41 
to 47, 49, 50, 62, 64, 67, 68, 77, 80, 



INDEX OV NAMES 



651 



SS, 87, 93, 97, 98, 133, 136, 141, 145, 
162, 167,169,170,173,180,193, 194, 
195, 19S, 199, 201, 203, 207, 209, 
219, 222, 227, 228, 230, 235, 236, 
239 to 246, 256, 263, 264, 265, 267, 
272, 295, 296, 297, 301, 303 to 306, 
308, 316, 318, 320 to 334, 336 to 339, 
350, 362, 368, 372, 373, 376, 379, 
380, 381, 384, 385, 393 to 396, 400, 
403, 405 to 408, 410 to 418, 420, 
428, 433, 439, 441, 447, 457, 461, 
464, 470, 472, 483, 488, 489, 491, 
493, 497 to 501, 504, 505, 506, 518 
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Wori? by — 

Aspecta Medusa, ix., 244, 268, 280, 
281, 282, 290 to 294, 308 

Aurora, 139, 140 

Autumn Idleness, 468 

Ave, 454, 465 

Beata Beatrix, 199, 233, 304 

Beauty and the Bird, 455, 456 

Before the Battle, 12, 13, 14 

Belcolore, 164 

Beloved, The, 175 

Bionda (La) del Balcone, 329 

Blake (William), Writings on, 18, 19, 
170, 171 

Blessed Damozel, 466 

Blue Bower, The, loi, 164, 165 

Boat of Love, 132, 133, 141, 151, 153 

Bride's Prelude, The, 413 

Burd Alane, 139 

Burden of Nineveh, 453, 454 

Card-dealer, The, 468 

Cassandra, 233, 436 

Choice, The, 454, 455 

Christmas Carol, 224 

Colleited Works, 236, 417 

Dante in Verona, 413, 415 

Dante's Dream, x., 290, 292, 293, 35c, 
486, 487 

Death (sonnet), 339 

Doom of the Sirens, 417 

Early Italian Poets translated, 3, 437, 
471, 490, 491 

Eden Bovver, 408, 415, 470, 483 

Found, viii., ix., x., 66, 265, 487, 488, 

489 
Gabriele Rossetti, Portraits of, 353 
Ghirlandata, La, 95 
Girlhood of Mary Virgin (picture), 

67, 68, 175 
Do. (Sonnet), 455, 456, 468 
Giorgione's Pastoral (sonnet), 455, 

456 
Goblin Market Designs, 77, 78 
Golden Water, 1 33 
Gretchen with the Jewels, 230 



Rossetti, Dante Gabriel — Conlinued 
Hamlet and Ophelia, 436, 523 
Hand and Soul, 455, 456, 457, 490, 

491 
Helen of Troy, 442 
Hesterna Rosa, 70, 71, 139, 140 
How they met themselves, 227 
Jenny, 413, 472, 529 
Joan of Arc, 14, 227 
King Rene's Honeymoon, 62, 63 
Lady Lilith, 47, 226, 297, 407, 483 
Last Confession, 413, 415, 454, 469 
Launcelot and Guenevere, 133 
Love-Lily, 396 

Love's Nocturn, 462, 466, 467, 468 
Loving-cup, The, 230 
Lucrezia Borgia, 298, 299, 301, 442, 

443 
Magdalene at the House of Simon, 

H4, 442, 524 
Mariana, 327, 486, 487 
Mary in Summer, To, 453, 454 
Match with the Moon, 468 
Monna Vanna, 164 
Mrs Dante Rossetti, Head of, 523, 

524 
Mrs Leyland, Portrait of, 233, 236 
Mrs Morris (Oil-picture), 203, 319, 

486 
Mrs Rossetti (Oil-picture), 297 
Mrs Wetherall, Head of, 193 
Mrs Zambaco, Head of, 500 
My Sister's Sleep, 458, 462 
Nuptial Sleep, 453, 455, 456 
Orchard-pit, The, 417, 467 
Pandora (picture), 337, 384, 391, 403, 

486, 487 
Do. (Sonnet), 386 
Paolo and Francesca, 14, 133, 229 
Parable of the X'ineyard, 300 
Passover in the Holy Family, 133 
Penelope, 403 
Pia, La, 296, 302 
Plighted Piomise, 454 
Poems, 1870, vii., x., xi., 453,499, 504, 

506, 512, 518, 524, 526, 528, 529 
Portrait, The (poem), 413 
Prince's Progress Designs, 83, 84, 95 
Regina Cordium, 2, 132, 133 
Retro me Sathana, 455 
Rose, The, 234 
Sea-Limits, The, 469, 470 
Seed (The) of David, 50, 51, 209 
Sermon (The) on the Plain, 526 
Sibylla Palmifera, 95, 407, 486, 487 
Sister Helen, 461, 462, 466 
Socrates and Aspasia, 147, 148, 152 
Song and Music, 462 



552 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Rossetti, Dante Gabriel — Continued 
Sonnets in Fortnightly Review, 430 
Staff and Scrip, 453 
Stream's (The) Secret, 527 
Superscription, A, 380 
Tennyson Designs, 30 
Tibullus and Delia, 268 
Trisiram and Yseult, 242, 345 
Troy Town, 408, 477 
Union Hall, Oxford, Paintings in, 

477, 482 
Vain Virtues, 386 
Venus Verticordia (picture), 60, 61, 

62, 132, 134, 136, 137, 227, 303, 

308, 406 
Do. (Sonnet), 296, 456 
Veronica Veronese, 95 
Washing Hands, 139, 140, 146 
Willow-wood, 339 
Rossetti, Elizabeth E., vii., viii., x., i, 
75, 76, 167, 194, 212, 406 
Clerk Saunders, painting by, 433, 

437, 511 
Pippa Passes, design by, 437 
Poems by, 75 to 78 
Rossetti, Frances, ix., 74 to 77, 84, 104, 
105, 107, 108, 112, 115, 122, 124, 
125, 202, 217, 225, 231, 246, 334, 
336, 384, 411, 412, 457, 501 
Rossetti, Gabriele, ix., 3, 79, 80, 170, 
173, 176, 178, 183, 187, 208, 2og, 
216, 231, 254, 288, 343, 344, 348, 
352, 398, 426, 427, 448, 531 
Amor Platonico by, 80, 182, 183, 208, 

288, 418 
Arpa Evangelica by, 190 
Beatrice di Dante by, 179, 183, 208, 

288, 289, 343, 344, 427 
Dante's Purg|itory, Comment on, by, 

176, 179 
Poems by, prefaced by G. di Stefano, 

73, 74, 188 
Poems by, selected by Carducci, 8, 

187 
Poems by, selected by Wm. Rossetti, 

411, 414 
Poesie Inedite by, 188 
Roma, Secolo 19, by, 188 
Salterio (11) by, 469 
Sei pur Bella, Ode by, 198 
Veggente in Solitudine by, 1 91 
Rossetti, Helen, 372, 414, 493 

Dante Gabriel Rossetti by, 436 
Rossetti, Lucy, 49, 199, 203, 330, 404, 

449, 464,. 493, 504 
Painting, picture by, 379 
Rossetti, Maria F., 12, 13, 14, 72, 202, 
329, 341, 384, 410, 470 



Rossetti, Maria F, — Continued 

Italian Exercises etc. by, 72, 73, 329 
Shadow of Dante, by, 500 
Rossetti, Wm. M., 2, 5, 6, 7, 13, 15, 17, 

43, 44, 69, 79, 180, 263, 275, 458 
Rossetti, Wm. M, Works by — 
American Poems (edited), 403 
Arthur Hughes and other Painters, 

Article on, 415 
Artists' Dicta, compilation, 234, 245, 

296 
Blake, Catalogue of Works by, 16 
Boccaccio's Filostrato translated, x., 

326, 327, 333, 417 
Christianity of Christ, 323 
Chronicle, Articles in The, 270 
Dante's Hell translated, ix., 74, 79, 85, 

89, 91, 102, 176, 196, 199, 246, 

378 
English Opinion on the American 

War, ix., 162, 168 
Fine Art, chiefly Contemporary, 222, 

224, 234, 246, 267 
Humorous Poems (edited), 403 
Italian Courtesy-books, x., 304, 308, 

326, 327, 367,448, 508, 509, 514, 

525 
Memoir of D. G. Rossetti, 76, 334, 

355,453 
Mrs Holmes Grey, 243, 284, 296, 

297, 408, 409 
Prseraphaelite Diaries and Letters 

(edited), vii. 
Ruskin, Article on, 245, 379, 408 
Ruskin, Rossetti, etc. (edited), vii., 

12, 76 
Shelley, Emendations to, x., 299, 301, 

307, 352, 420 
Shelley's Poems (edited), x., 338, 381, 
384, 385, 391, 392, 397, 398, 400, 
401, 405, 406, 409, 410, 418, 423, 
424, 429, 445, 499, 500, 504, 505, 
510, 513 to 516, 519 
Stations of Rome (edited), 199 
Swinburne's Poems and Ballads, a 
Criticism, ix., 193, 194, 195, 197, 
199, 206, 216, 246, 299 
Talks with Trelawny, 398 
Tiipper's Hiatus, Review of, 481 
Rossi, Dario, 41 1, 414 
Rossini, Gioacchino, 449 
Rothschild, 120 
Round Table (magazine), 270 
Roustan, 262 

Routledge, Edmund, 242, 243, 244 
Royal Academy, 228, 231, 232, 233, 
269, 296, 306, 322, 329, 393, 396, 
494, 499, 502, 504 



INDEX OF NAMES 



553 



Rubens, 32, 34, 35 
Adoration of Magi (Antwerp) by, 33 
Adoration of Magi (Brussels) by, 32 
Assumption of the Virgin by, 34 
Crucifixion (Antwerp) by, 33 
Descent from Cross by, 34 
Elevation of Cross by, 34 
Family Group by, 34 
Female Martyrdom by, 32 
Flagellation, The, by, 35 
Jerome's Last Communion by, 33 
Marriage of St Catharine by, 35 
Portraits (Brussels) by, 32 
St Bavon renouncing the World by, 

. . 36 
Visitation, The, by, 34 
Rue de la Cloche, Calais, 450 
Rue de Rivoli, Paris, 55 
Rue Dyck, Antwerp, 35 
Rue Lepelletier, Paris, 55 
Rue Vivienne, Paris, 59 
Rugby, 236, 387, 393 
Rugby School, 445 
Rumble, Miss, 402, 431, 432, 447, 450, 

451, 452 

Ruskin, John, ix., 9, 12, 25, 26, 30, 46, 
58, 80, 86, 92, 133, 134, 136, 141, 
163, 164, 165, 195 to 199, 225, 226, 
238, 263, 297, 300, 302, 303, 305, 
320, 334, 351, 360, 361, 383, 407, 
408. 437, 481, 482 
Selection from Works of, 198 
Stones of Venice by, 195 
Time and Tide by, 263, 340 

Ruskin, John J., 198 

Ruskin, Mrs John (^see Millais, Lady) 

Ruskin, Mrs (Senr.), 198 

Russia, 227, 413 

Ruxton, Captain, 154, 155, 156 

Ruxton, Mrs, 156 

Rye, 201 



Sacchetti, Franco, 367 

Saffi, Aurelio, 224, 225 

Saint Alpin Church, Chalons, 129 

Saint Andre Church, Antwerp, 35 

Saint Augustine Church, Antwerp, 35 

Saint Augustine's Tomb, Pavia, 1 17 

Saint Bavon Cathedral, Ghent, 36 

Saint Cloud, Palace of, 262 

Saint Eustache Church, Paris, 130 

Saint Gervais Church, Paris, 262 

Saint Helena, Isle of, 261 

Saint Helena, Venice, Island, 438 

Saint James's Hall, London, 298, 384 

Saint Jaques Church, Antwerp, 34 



Saint Jaques Church, Ghent, 36 
Saint Mark's, Venice, 189 
Saint Merri Church, Paris, 131 
Saint Nicholas Church, Ghent, 36 
Saint Nicolas aux Champs Church, 

Paris, 131 
Saint Paul Church, Antwerp, 35 
Sain: Paul's, London, 128, 272 
Saint Sulpice Church, Paris, 54 
Saint Theresa, 457 
Sainte Beuve, 209, 427 
Sala, George A., 308, 319, 320 
Salt Lake City, 304 
San Bartolomeo Church, Milan, 113 
San Bernardino Church, Verona, 121 
San Clemente Church, Brescia, 120 
San Domenico Church, Naples, 188 
San Domenico Convent, Naples, 190 
San Fedele Church, Como, 112 
San Fermo, 112 

San Fermo Church, Verona, 121 
San Francesco Church, Pavia, 117, 120 
San Giovanni e Paolo Church, Venice, 

314 . 
San Graziano Church, Arena, 317 
San Lorenzo Church, Milan, 1 15 
San Marco Church, Milan, 1 13, 114 
San Marino Church, Pavia, 117 
San Matteo Church, Genoa, 187 
San Maurizio, Milan, I15 
San Michele Church, Pavia, 117 
San Miniato, 258 
San Nazaru Church, Brescia, 120 
San Pietro in Oliveto, Brescia, 119 
San Satiro Church, Milan, 113 
San Teodoro Church, Pavia, 1 17 
San \'ittore Church, Milan, 115 
San Zenone Church, X'^erona, 57, 120 
Sandys, Frederick A., x., 66, 87, 88, 95, 
194, 197, 201, 225, 306, 307, 308, 
381, 385, 394, 395, 396, 441 

Helen by. 442 

Lucretia Borgia by, 394, 442 

Medea by, 224, 306, 307 

Mrs Bairstow, portrait, by, 385 

The Valkyrie by, 307 
Sanson & Co., 410 
Sant' Abondio Church, Como, 112 
Sant' Afra Church, Brescia, 118 
Sant' Agata, near Naples, 190 
Sant' Alessandro Church, Brescia, 118 
Sant' Ambrogio Church, Milan, 114, 

115 
Sant' Anastasia Church, \^erona, 120 
Sant' Andrea Church, Mantua, 312 
Sant' Angelo a Nilo, Naples, 190 
Santa Chiara Church, Naples, 189 
Santa Croce Church, Florence, 352 



554 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Santa Giustina Church, Padua, 8 
Santa Maria Antica Church, Verona, 

1 20 
Santa Maria del Miracoli, Brescia, 118 
Santa Maria degl' Innocenti, Arona, 

Santa Maria della Scala, Verona, 120 

Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, 1 15 

Santa Prassede Church, Rome, 388 

Santa Rosora, 352, 353, 354 

Santo Spirito Church, Florence, 389 

Sardinia, Kingdom of, 204, 208 

Sarrebourg, 129 

Saturday Review, The, 92, 193, 197, 

231, 356, 507 
Sauval, 262 

Scala Monuments, Verona, 121 

Scaland's Gate, x., 501, 505 

Schaffhausen, 125 

Schaffhausen, Falls of, 124, 125, 126 

Scheffer, Ary, 427 

Schelling, 520 

Schiller, 247 

Schmidt, 314, 315 

Schmidt, Madame, 314 

Schmidt's Prussian Menagerie, 314 

Schopenhauer, 496 

Schweizerhof, Lucerne, 108 

Science and Art Department, 299 

Scotland, 512 

Scotsman, The (newspaper), 491 

Scott, David, 3, 4, 158 

Achilles and Patroclus by, 323 
Emerson, Portrait of, by, 391, 439, 

440 
Orestes and the Furies by, 323 

Scott, Mrs, 99, 320 

Scott, Sir Walter, 381, 385, 386, 402 

Scott, VVm. Bell, viii., i, 7 to 10, 22, 98, 
100, 157, 158, 160, 161, 189, 194, 
196, 210, 211, 213, 225, 226, 230, 

232, 237, 239, 240, 245, 246, 297, 
298, 320, 323, 324, 329, 331, 332, 
335: 336, 338 10 341, 372, 380, 382, 
384, 391, 394. 396, 410, 412, 416, 
439, 440, 458, 462, 473, 478, 493, 
496, 526, 527 

Autobiographical Notes by, 412, 492, 

493 
Burns Designs by, 458 
Durer's Diary translated by, 332, 

383, 409, 458, 465, 466, 471 
Glass designs at South Kensington 

by, 505 
King's Quair, Paintings by, 237, 332, 

370 
Prodigal, The, by, 336 
Scudder, Horace, 169, 180, 304 



Scuola di San Rocco, Venice, 9, 56 
Seaton, 211 
Sellier, 105 

Leander in Death by, 105 
Sepher ben Sira, 484 
Serassi, 371 

Life of Tasso by, 371 
Serena, 261 
Sergia, 260 

Seven Dials, London, 319 
Severn, Joseph, 183, 503 
Severn, Mrs Arthur, 198 
Seward, W. T., 419 
Shakespear, 55, 342, 476 

Hamlet by, 342 

Midsummer Night's Dream by, 55 
Sharpe, J. Kirkpatrick, 474 
Shelley, Harriet, 261, 332, 373, 386, 
400, 401, 405, 446, 447, 474, 499, 
500 
Shelley, Hellen, 374, 399 
Shelley, John, 337 
Shelley, Lady, 374, 375, 399, 400, 

514 
Shelley Memorials by, 399, 400 
Shelley, Margaret, 374, 399 
Shelley, Mary W,, 332, 380, 398, 399, 
402, 415, 424, 429, 432, 446, 447, 
451, 452, 5oo> 502, 510, 514, 517, 
530 
Shelley, Percy B., 181, 182, 183, 240, 
254, 261, 331, 332, 337, 340, 353, 
366, 373, 374, 376, 378, 379, 380, 
382, 383, 386, 392, 397 to 402, 404, 
405, 407, 4", 413, 414, 415,418, 
420, 426, 427, 430, 432, 446, 447, 
450, 451, 452, 474, 480, 499, 500 to 
503, 514, 515, 522, 523, 530, 531 
Shelley, Percy B. Worh by — 
Alastor, 421 

Cenci (The), 375, 376, 382, 386 
Charles I., 385, 429 
Dead Violet, Lines on, 416 
Daemon of the World, 335, 421 
Epipsychidion, 379, 429 
Essay on Prophecy, 474 
Faust translated, 385 
Indian Serenade, 392, 416 
Julian and Maddalo, 429 
Letter to Maria Gisborne, 432 
Marenghi, 400 

Margaret Nicholson, 335, 424 
Miss Stacey, Poems to, 415, 416 
Mrs Williams, Poems to, 398 
Ode to the West Win i, 519 
Poeti>al Works, 333, 335, 336, 381, 

385, 412 
Posthumous Poems, 378 



INDEX OF NAMES 



555 



Shelley, Percy B. — Coyitinued 

Prometheus Unbound, 339, 382, 383, 

499- SI I 
Queen Mab, 335, 386 
Refutation of Deism, 515 
Relics of, 421, 474 
Revolt of Islam, 372, 373, 379, 394, 

395 
Saint Irvyne, 377 
Swellfoot the Tyrant, 400 
Triumph of Life, 429 
Unfinished Drama, 400 
Virgil's Gallus translated, 400 
Zastrozzi, 377 
Shelley, Sir Percy F., 332, 374, 375, 

382, 385, 392, 399. 402, 430, 432, 
503, 514 

Shelley, Sir Timothy, 392 

Shelley, William, 514 

Shepherd, R. Heme, 299 

Shields, F. J., 71, 269, 300, 381, 384, 

.472 

Pilgrim's Progress Designs by, 71 
Shields, North and South, 28 
Shilling Magazine, The, 87, 88, 95 
Shipley, Rev. Orby, 75, 76, 88, 99, lOO 
Sibson, Thomas, 157, 158 

Etchings to Dickens by, 157 
Siddal, Henry, 270 
Siena, 10 
Sim, Dr, 189, 190 
Simcox, 393, 527 

Poems by, 393 

Prometheus Unbound by, 393 
Sion House, Brentford, 514, 522 
Skelton, Sir John, 525 
Skinner, Hilary, 413 
Slack, J. H., 404, 405, 406 
Slack, Mrs, 404 
Smalley, G. W., 355 
Smetham, James, 162, 163, 267, 362, 

383, 384, 3'^5, 428, 489, 491. 492 
Letters of, 163 

Smith (Family Herald), 160 

Smith, John T., 20 

Smith and Elder, 17, 299 

Society Belle Arti, Naples, 190 

Societe d'Acclimatation, Paris, 59 

Society for Promoting Christian Know- 
ledge, 77, 78 

Solferino, 115, 119, 289 

Solomon, King, 260 

Solomon, Simeon, 269 
Habet by, 269 

Somerset House, 242, 243, 307, 318, 
321, 323, 330, 331, 337> 339, 411, 
499 

Sophocles, 515 



Sorel, Agnes, 259 

Sotheby, Mrs, 475 

Sotto-piombi, Venice, 315 

South America, 196 

Southampton, 156, 227 

Spain, 213, 330 

Spartali, Michael, 252, 413 

Spartali, Marie (5^1? Stillman, Mrs) 

Spartali, Misses, 229 

Spectator, The (newspaper), 199, 337 

Speke Hall, 321 

Spello, 434 

Spencer, Herbert, 200 

Spinoza, 474 

Tractatus Theologico-Politicus by, 
474 
Spiritual Magazine, The, 368, 516 
Spliigen, The, 123, 124 
Spottisvvoode, 469 
Standard, The (newspaper), 325 
Stanhope, J. R. Spencer, 477 
Stanley, Dean, 523 
Stansted Hall, Essex, 43 
Star, The (newspaper), 197 
Statins, 380 

The Thebaid by, 380 
Steele, Dr, 406 
Stennett, J, H., 325 
Stephens, Frederic G., 198, 296, 306, 

332 
Stephens, Holman, 332 
Stephens, Mrs, 198 
Stevens, Alfred, 239 
Stillman, Mrs (J^aura), 299 
Stillman, Mrs (Marie), 336, 413, 415, 
464, 465, 529 

St Barbara by, 504 

The Lagoon by, 413 
Stillman,W.J.,viii.,x.,xi., 10, 11,51,214, 
222, 226, 235, 252, 274, 299, 306, 

331, 333, 337, 338, 340, 359, 412, 
413,415,499, 506, 513, 528, 529 
Cretan Days by, 235, 277 
Stisted, Miss, 392 
Stokes, Whitley, 239 
Story Junior, 306 
Story, W. W., 306 
Stothard, Thomas, 178 

Henry VIU, and Anne Boleyn by, 

363 
Stowe, Mrs Beecher, 411, 460, 467, 480 
Stradadi Toledo, Naples, 191 
Strahan, 517 
Strasburg, 127 

Strasburg Cathedral, 1 27, 1 28 
Stratford-on-Avon, 194, 195, 325, 326 
Strathmore, Lord, 255 
Street, G. E., 199, 308 



556 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Stromboli (ship), igi 
Stuerbout, 32 
Sudbury, Derbyshire, 3 
Sully, Due de, 262 

Memoires de, 262 
Sun, The (newspaper), 351 
Sunderland Cooperative Store, 509 
Supplementary Exhibition, London, 

396 
Sussex, 173, 405 

Swinburne, Admiral, 220, 221, 271 
Swinburne, Algernon C, ix., 27, 42, 64, 
88, 168, 169, 172, 177, 193, 194, 197, 
200, 219, 220, 221, 226, 228, 230, 
231, 233, 242, 244, 245, 255, 271, 
297. 301, 302, 303, 305 to 308, 318, 
3191 320, 330, 335, 338, 344, 351, 
376, 379. 386, 394, 395, 400, 401, 
402, 407, 409, 410, 413, 416, 427, 

446, 447, 483, 493, 498, 504, 505, 
518 
Swinburne, Algernon C. IVorh by — 
Atalanta in Calydon, 63, 64, 87, 89, 

95, 247, 505 
Baudelaire, 301 
Blake, Study on, 63, 168, 22i, 224, 

234, 344 
Coleridge Selection, 305 
Crete, 226 
Dirae, 411, 413, 498 
Eve of Revolution, 505 
Florence, Drawings in, Paper on, 

305 
Halt before Rome, 301, 305 
Hertha, 504, 505 
Hymn to Proserpine, 247 
L'Homme qui Rit (review), 395, 407, 

498 
Litany of the Nations, 504, 505 
Mary Stuart Trilogy, 242, 319 
Monna Lisa, 245 
Novel in form of Letters, 380 
Pamphlet on Poems and Ballads, ix., 

192, 193, 194, 197 
Poems and Ballads, 193, 197, 199, 

200, 206, 207, 224, 307, 335 
Rossetti's Poems, Review, 504, 505, 

525, 528 
Royal Academy Pamphlet, x., 305, 

306, 308, 319, 320, 351 
Song of Iialy, 221, 240 
Songs before Sunrise, x., 504, 505 
Tristram and Yseult, 242, 319, 

504 
Swinburne, Lady Jane, 220 
Swinburne, Misses, 220 
Switzerland, ix., 104, 107, 120, 310, 411 
Syraonds, J. Addington, x., 363 



Tabrett, 201 

Tacitus, 503 

Talkut Kadash, 485 

Talmud, The, 485, 486 

Tam O' Shanter Inn, Ayr, 453 

Tasso, 367, 368 

Tatham, Frederick, viii., 16, 20, 21, 41 

Epic Theory in Art by, 16, 17 

Memoir of William Blake by, 43 
Taylor, Captain, 499 
Taylor, Emma, 501 
Taylor, Gilbert, 363 

Dolomite Mountains by, 363 
Taylor, Isaac, 362 

Engravings for the Bible by, 362 

Natural History of Enthusiasm by, 
362 
Taylor, Isaac (Senr.), 363 

Portraits of Jane and Anne Taylor 
by, 363 
Taylor, Mrs Warington, 320, 499 
Taylor, Sir Henry, 4, 5 

Philip van Artevelde by, 4, 71 
Taylor, Tom, 178, 307, 427 

Memoir of Haydon by, 178, 179, 258, 
427 
Taylor, Warington, ix., 203, 219, 276, 

320, 322, 323, 325, 499 . 
Teatro della Canobbiana, Milan, 55 
Teatro Malibran, Venice, 56, 57 
Tebbs, H. Virtue, 47, 48, 245, 298, 

304, 338, 386, 406, 473, 477, 478 
Temple Bar (magazine), 401 
Tennyson, Frederick, 289 
Tennyson, Lady, 103 
Tennyson, Lord (Alfred), 6, 103, 202, 
226, 233, 273, 302, 333, 341, 364, 
385, 411,412,417, 505 

Idylls of the King by, 77 

Illustrated Edition of, 422, 423 

Lady of Shalott by, 341 
Tenterden, 201 
Terra-cotta Edifices, Italy (book), 205, 

214, 229 
Thames, The, 192, 318 
Theatre de la Porte St Martin, Paris, 

184 
Theatre Dejazet, Paris, 54 
Theatre du Pare, Brussels, 32 
Theatre Frangais, Paris, 104, 238 
Theatre Lyrique, Brussels, 33 
Theodore, King, 394 
Thomas, Mrs Edward, 88 
Thomas, W. Cave, 232 
Thomson, James, 381, 498 
Thoreau, 181 
Thornton, 20 



INDEX OF NAMES 



557 



Thorold (family), 341 
Thorwaldsen, 109 

Lion at Lucerne by, 109 
Tiberias, Lake of, 466 
Tiberius, 337 
Ticino, The, 1 10, 1 17 
Ticknor and Fields, 349 
Times, The, 73, 204, 205, 355, 467 
Tinsley's Magazine, 404, 458, 479 
Tintoret, 9, 32, 56, 113, 134, 198, 325, 
438 

Anticollegio Paintings by, 315 

Invention of the Cross by, 114 

Miracles of St Roch by, 391 

Paradise by, 315 

Pieta (Brera) by, 1 14 

St George and the Dragon by, 443 

Transfiguration by, 1 18 
Tissot, James, 105, 130, 239 

L'Enlfevement by, 105 

Le Printemps by, 105 
Titian, 34, 134, 135, 137, 138, 198, 
325, 363, 392, 438 

Alexander VI. and Sforza by, 34 

Peter Mart3T by, 315 

Portrait of Young Man (Bale) by, 108 

St Jerome (Brera) by, 246 

Woman taken in Adultery by, 118 
Tong, 46, 47 
Torcello, 438 
Touchett, 399, 400 
Traventi, 197, 198 

Trelawn}', Edward J., x., 182, 183, 215, 
218, 248, 254, 288, 366, 391, 392, 
398 to 402, 426, 427, 449, 480, 500, 
501, 502, 514, 517, 530, 531 

Records of Shelley etc, by, 254, 426, 

451 
Younger Son by, 254, 426 
Trelawny, Miss {see Call, Mrs) 
Trent, 208 

Trevelyan, Lady, 210, 211, 212 
Trevelyan, Sir Walter, 207 
Trianon, 262 
Trieste, 208 

Trinity College, Dublin, 57 
Trist, 62, 63 
Troy, De, 55 
Tudor House, Chelsea, 2 {see also 

Cheyne Walk) 
Tuileries Palace, 262 
Tupper, Alexander, 475 
Tupper, George, 393, 435 
Tupper, John, x., 236, 237, 321, 337, 

339. 379, 387 to 391, 393, 434, 435, 

445. 521 
Hiatus by, 445, 475, 521 
True Story of Mrs Stovve by, 475 



Tupper, Martin F., 203, 204 

Proverbial Philosophy by, 203 
Turin, 73, 74, 216, 217, 321, 391 
Turkey, 227 

Turner, J, M. W., 21, 29, 233, 234, 305, 
325, 383.438 

Hesperides by, 21 

Jason by, 21 

Liber Studiorum by, 521 

Martigny by, 325 
Tuscany, 217 
Twickenham, 513 
Tyne, The, 28 
Tynemouth, 16, 28 



U 



Uberti, Fazio degli, 3 
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 389, 503 
Union Debating-hall, Oxford, 477 
Union Society, Oxford, 477, 482 
United States, 53, 161, 263, 303 
University College, London, 72, 324 
University College, Oxford, 522, 523 
University College Hospital, London, 

438 
Upton, 167 



VaccA, Dr, 399 
Valery, 387 
Valparaiso, 196 
Valpy, R. L., 267, 268 
Van Eyck, John, 36, 135 

Adoration of the Spotless Lamb by, 
36 

Arnolfini Portraits by, 135 

Head of Christ by, 38 

Portrait of his Wife by, 38 

Virgin and Child, with Sts. George 
and Donatian by, 37 
Vandyck, 35, 325 

Damae due Putti by, 187 

Repose in Egypt by, 37 
Varchi, 368 
Varennes, 130 
Varese, 112 
Varley, John, 43 
Vasto, 176 

Vauxhall Concert, Brussels, 33 
Velasquez, 35, 198 

A Saint in Torment by, 391 

Prometheus b}', 35 
Venetia, 116, 186 

Venice, viii., x., 8, 9, 13, 55, 57, 196, 
204, 208, 213, 216, 305, 308, 313, 
314. 359. 389, 434 



558 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Venice Accademia, 315 

Vernet, Horace, 427 

Verneuil, Marquise de, 262, 263 

Vernon, Lord, 3, 178, 183, 288, 448, 

449. 480, 510 
Verona, 57, 58, 120, 122, 216, 308, 313, 

314. 438 
Vespasian, 199 

Via deir Ascensione, Naples, 190 
Vicenza, 57 
Vichy, 407 
Victor Emanuel II., 56, 115, 116, 117, 

189, 199, 208, 249, 289, 310, 311, 

509 
Victoria and Albert Museum, 4, 8, 139, 
239, 276, 277, 278, 318, 346, 347, 
363,408,458,500,503,505 
Victory (Grecian Bronze), 119 
Vie dei Fiori Chiari ed Oscuri, Milan, 

114 
Vieusseux, 182, 183 
Villa Franca, 204, 208 
Villa Pallavicini, Genoa, 192 
Villa Reale, Naples, 188 
Villari, Pasquale, 343, 509 
Vinci, Leonardo da, 316, 392, 481, 525 

Fight for the Standard by, 481, 482 

Last Supper by, 482 

Virgin and Child by, 389 
Violet (Romance), 461, 462 
Virgil, 258 

The JEmid by, 258 
Virgil (Thornton's), 20 
Virgilii, Pasquale de', 217, 218 

Nicolo de' Rienzi by, 218 
Viviani, Emilia, 402, 447, 452, 502 
Vokins, 47, 59, 60 
Voltaire, 317, 337 



W 

WAINWRIGHT, 221 
Walker Art-Gallery, Liverpool, 486 
Wallenstadt, Lake of, 124 
Waller (Fleet St.), 411,413 
Wallington, Northumberland, 207 
Wallis, Henry, 407, 503 

Return from Marston Moor by, 139 
Wallisellen, 124 
Wansbeck (steamer), 28 
Ward, Artemus, 227 
Ward. Harry, 339, 380 
Warden, The (house), 237 
Warwick, 326 

Washington (D. C), 180, 358, 403 
Washington Star, The, 355 
Water-colour Society, 224, 253, 395 



Waterford, Lady, 199 
Watson, J. D., 243 
Watt, 448 
Watteau, 232, 392 

Wedding Procession by, 392 
Watts, George F., 202, 224 

Clytie by, 322, 403 

Daphne by, 403 

Endymion by, 403 

Millais, portrait, by, 403 
Watts, T. E., 325 
Waugh, Gledstanes, 261 
Waugh, Mr, 301 
Waugh, Mrs, 225 
Webb, Philip, 5, 231, 246, 276, 277, 

278, 280, 346, 347 
Webster's English Dictionary, 275 
Weekes, 514 

Shelley Monument by, 514 
Wellington, The (Club), 243 
Wells, H. T., 494 
Westness, Thomas, 508 
Whistler, J. M., ix., 14, 130, 196, 222, 
228, 229, 233, 234, 235, 245, 246, 
257.. 303, 306, 319, 320,495 

Portrait of himself by, 222 

Princesse du Palais de Porcelaine by, 

105 
Symphony in White, No. 3, by, 228 
Whisiler, Mrs, 320 
Whistler, Wm., 235, 245 
Whitman, Walt, ix., x., l8l, 231, 240, 
243, 244, 245, 270, 283, 297, 320, 
342, 351, 355. 357, 358, 359, 366, 
386, 403, 404, 418, 459, 460, 492, 
4Q7 507, 508, 519, 520 
Carol of Harvest by, 270 
Democracv by, 284, 287 
Drum-taps by, 181, 357 
Leaves of Grass by, ix., x., l8l, 230, 
275, 283, 284, 286, 287, 340, 343, 
356, 357, 363, 364, 365, 403, 
459, 476, 497, 507, 509 
Lincoln's Funeral-hymn by, 284 
O Captain, my Captain, by, 181 
Selection from, by W. M. Rossetti, 
ix., 239, 240, 241, 243 to 246, 
274, 283, 285, 297, 306, 320, 351, 
356, 363, 497, 509, 516, 518 
Walt Whitman by, 343 
Wick low. Earl of, 98 
Wierus, 485 
Wigand, 223 
Wilberforce, 80 
Wilding, Alexa, 95, 244 
Wilding, Mrs, 95 
Wilkinson, Dr, 170, 368, 369 

Improvisations of the Spirit by, 170 



INDEX OF NAMES 



559 



Williams, Lieutenant, 399, 501, 514, 

516, 517 
Williams, Miss, 402 
Williams, Richard, 159 
Williams, Roland, 160 
Williams, W. Smith, 17, 437 
Williamson, Dr, 472, 475 
Wilson, John, 393 
Wilson, Dr, 389 
Winchelsea, 194, 20I 
Windus, B. W., 298, 299 
Windus, Miss, 232 
Windus, Mrs, 232 
Windus, W. L., 232 

Burd Helen by, 232 
Winsor, CharloUe, 157, 161 
Winterthur, 124 
Wood Vale, Cowes, 374 
Woodward, B. B., 227 
Woolner, Mrs, 199 

Woolner, Thomas, 39, 46, loi, 156, 
207, 225, 241, 273, 305, 321, 324, 
325, 328, 332, 391, 480, 510 

Browning, Medallion by, 306 

Elaine by, 324 

Iliad, Medallions from, by, 242 

Lord Palmerston, statue by, 321, 324, 
328 

My Beautiful Lady by, 39, 40 

Ophelia by, 321, 324 

Sassoon, Statue by, 324 

Virgilia by, 242, 324 



Wordsworth, Wm., 385, 386, 402 
Working Men's College, London, 

482 
Wornum, R. N., 235, 245, 383 
Wright (of Derby), 307 

Browning's Grandmother, portrait, by, 
307 
Wuits, De, 35 
Wyatt, Sir Digby, 400 



Yarmouth Roads, 29 
\ ork, 405 
Yorkshire, 5, 523 



Zaehringer Hof, Freiburg, 126 
Zohar Kadash, 485, 486 
Zoological Gardens, Antwerp, 36 
Zoological Gardens, Brussels, 33 
Zoological Gardens, London, 185, 224, 

330 
Zum Goldenen Ochsen (house in 

Schaffhausen), 125 
Zum Ritter (house in Schaffhausen), 

125 
Zurich, 58 



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Edinburgh 



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